Finding Alice
by starfallimagination
Summary: Alice is a 14 year old girl who lives with her parents and older brother in a dull and ordinary life. Until one night a strange cat leads her outside into the forest behind her house and spooks her into falling down a hole. Alice wakes up in what she thinks is Wonderland but this wonderland is much more dangerous, and nothing like the stories she's read in a book.
1. Prologue

Finding Alice

Prologue

It was a warm summer day in which Aaron, and Alice played in the small forest thicket behind their house. The brother and sister were playing their favorite game "Adventures in wonderland" where they would often take the roles of different characters from the original poem and give them a twist of their own. Today Aaron, the older brother was playing the role of a noble white knight while Alice was playing the tyrannical queen of hearts.

Using sticks they found lying around as swords, the two were fencing with each other imagining they were locked in combat with lethal weapons. Casually the two battered the sticks against each other when Alice stumbled backwards on a nearby tree root; Aaron took advantage of this momentary slip up and jabbed Alice in the chest with the stick.

The jab pushed Alice down onto her butt as Aaron shouted triumphantly, "you have been slain queen of hearts." Alice Jerked her body a little bit then fell on her back making a few cliché dying noises then fell silent. "The queen is no more, you are free now Wonderland." Aaron said to no one.

Then after a brief moment of silence the siblings burst into laughter. Their laughs filled the entire forest as they almost didn't hear their dad calling to them for lunch. Aaron helped his little sister up and the two raced towards the house. Aaron was taller and faster than Alice and could easily outrun her but he kept his pace with her and waited until they were closer to the house to start slowing down. Alice won the race mere steps ahead of her brother; she knew he had let her win but still she cheered for herself and gave her brother a punch on the arm.

Over Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and some chips Alice admires how she wishes she could go to wonderland for real. She thinks out loud how incredible it would be to live there. Alice's praise of wonderland fills her entire house as she stuffs her face with food, spitting crumbs all over the table. Aaron laughs lightly at it and says, "Be careful now you might just wake up in wonderland and realize that you were only dreaming this world up."

"If it means I don't have to return to school in a couple more weeks then it's a deal." Alice said.

After another fun filled day of playing outside, Aaron and Alice went to their separate rooms and crawled into bed. Aaron woke up late the next afternoon; letting out a big yawn as he knocked on his sisters door to see if she was still sleeping. No answer. Aaron knocked again calling her name out loud this time, but all was silent.

"Alice I'm coming in." Aaron said as he opened the door.

Aaron was jolted awake by what he saw behind the door inside the room. Instead of his sisters bedroom the entire thing had been transformed into a study room. There was a neat orderly desk facing outside the window while the walls were lined with bookshelves that were filled with dust. Aaron turned around and bolted down the stairs.

In the kitchen Aaron found his parents at the table drinking coffee and reading some books. "Mom, Dad where is Alice?" Aaron asked.

His parents both look up at him, each with a puzzling expression on their face. "Who is Alice?" His mom asks.

"My sister, and your daughter for 14 years;" Aaron replied.

Aaron's parents give each other a concerned look then turn to Aaron. "Are you feeling alright son, did you hit your head?" Aaron's dad asks him.

"I'm fine." Aaron shouts. "Now tell me what's happened to my younger sister Alice and why has her room been changed into a study?"

After a long moment of silent Aarons mom said, "Sweetie you're an only child. You don't have a sister."

Thinking his parents have gone mad Aaron ran out of the house and into the forest thicket. "Alice!" He shouted. "Alice where are you?"

There was no response, and Aaron continued searching the forest thicket. After several hours of absolutely nothing Aaron called it quits and found his way back home in the dark. As he crawled into bed exhausted and confused he wondered what was going on and if he was losing his mind, he thought about hundreds of possible explanations for what was happening but none of it made any sense to him as darkness and sleep crept up on him.

The next morning Aaron checked back in what used to be his sisters room but it was just the same as the day before; a study room and no sign of Alice. Aaron's parents were at work today so he had the whole house to himself to search for clues for his missing sister. The first place Aaron goes to is the family photo albums and he pulls out every picture.

Aaron starts with the pictures from Alice's date of birth and on. He finds all the old family photos he remembers as a kid, trips to the zoo, the aquarium, visiting his grandparents. Every single one of the photos is exactly as he remembers it was with everyone in the same pose and some sort of silly face, except this time no Alice. His sister was not in a single family photo it was as if every trace of her has vanished, or like she was never real in the first place.

Aaron pushed those thoughts out of his head entirely and put back the photos from where he found them. Then knowing his parents would return soon and wishing to avoid there would be talk about his behavior the other night, Aaron went back into the forest thicket. He walked around at random thinking about what he should do next. After some time alone Aaron thought of a plan.

Returning home before the sun set Aaron played everything cool with his parents, explaining to them that he was having some sort of waking nightmare and everything was fine now. But for Aaron everything was not fine he still believed he had a sister named Alice and was bent on discovering what had happened to her. School would be starting up in a couple more weeks then he could ask Alice's friends, former teachers and anyone who knew of her if they had a clue as to what was going on.

Two weeks later on the first day of school Aaron sat outside the principal's office while his parents talked to the principal. Aaron had gone to Alice's friends as he planned but when they gave him the same reactions his parents did he started yelling at them, believing it was still some sort of practical joke. Security escorted Aaron to the principal after that and they phoned his parents.

Aaron returned home grounded for a week, and suspended from school for a few days. His parents tried talking to him about things but he only ignored them and when school came back around he avoided everyone and kept his head low. Things were fine for a while after that, or so it seemed.

One day at school after about a month of the incident on the first day some kids were mocking Aaron at lunch, he ignored them until they brought his sister into it. Without a second thought Aaron punched the first kid in the face and sent him sprawling backwards. His friend retaliated, by kicking Aaron in the chest and sending him onto an empty lunch table.

By the time Aaron recovered and was back onto beating the two other students security had shown up to break up the fight. But Aaron was not only big and strong; he was mad and very determined to hurt these two who had insulted his dear sister. Aaron fought off the security guards as he continued his assault on the students. More security guards came after that and eventually they were able to stop Aaron; but not before he beat the other students black and blue.

Aaron's parents were furious about the news of their son's actions. When they learned the fight was started over what they are now calling "the Alice conundrum" they started making him go to a therapist. If Aaron didn't go they would sent him to an asylum for adolescents, so he chose therapy instead. At first Aaron is entirely reluctant to talk to the therapist at all but eventually he opens up and tells her about Alice, and how they used to play in the forest thicket behind his house.

Soon enough the therapist suggests to Aaron that Alice was never real in the first place and instead he made her up in his loneliness at home. That he used the story of "Alice's adventures in wonderland" for a base on building an imaginary sister, thus her obsession with the novel. At first Aaron completely disregarded the theory, but over time Aaron began to accept it was possible.

After a year and a half of therapy and the overwhelming evidence stacked against him, Aaron finally accepts the fact that he really did imagine a younger sister named Alice to quell his loneliness at home. Then five months later Aaron still seeing his therapist helping him move past all that has happened to him graduates from high school and his parents tell him that they think its best for all of them if they move out of town now that he's no longer in school.

Aaron is sad to leave his friends behind but he also agrees with his parents and begins packing things up as soon as they find a place. Aaron no longer has to see his therapist but she gave him her number in case he needs to talk to her about anything. And after a couple weeks everything is packed up and put into a moving van that Aaron's mom drove ahead to their new house.

Aaron stays behind to help his dad clean up the dirt and dust around the house when he gets to his dads old study. He checks the room for dust or dirt but finds nothing and begins to walk out when an image of Alice, his imaginary sister randomly pops into his head. Aaron looks around the room and it is just as empty as before except the closet door which is cracked open slightly. Aaron realizing he forgot to check the closet to make sure there isn't a mess to clean up in there he slides open the door and finds a paperback novel titled: "Alice's adventures in wonderland."

Aaron picks up the dusty book as a piece of yellow aged paper slides out from inside it and lands by his feet. He picks up the paper and reads what is written on it: "Aaron, I am sure by now you are wondering about what has happened to me. It's not an easy thing to answer but it is simple and short. I have found myself in Wonderland and after my all that has happened to me here I have decided to stay. I am writing to let you know that I am safe and happy-

Love, Alice."

Aaron read the note a second time as tears started streaming down his face. When his dad called to him Aaron wiped his tears away and slid the note into his pocket. Aaron went back downstairs and told his dad he would wait in the car for him to finish.

As his dad starts up the car Aaron puts the note in-between the pages of the book and rests it on his lap. Then they start to drive away as Aaron looks back at his old house, his old home, and his old life; a life where he had a sister.


	2. Chapter 1 Wonderland

Part 1 - Hatter and Alice

Chapter 1: Wonderland

The loud sound of purring disturbs Alice from her sleep and in a groggy voice she says, "Go away Mr. Kitty I'm tired." After that the purring stops and Alice turns onto her side content to continue sleeping when she realizes they do not own a cat.

Alice sits up yawning and trying to wipe the sleepiness out of her eyes. She manages to get her eyes open enough to see a little bit in the dim lighting and indeed there is a cat in her house. Alice cannot make out any details about the cat because it was too dark but something about its shape seemed strange. Before Alice could turn on her lamp next to her bedside the cat meows and walks out of her room opening her door wider. "I could have sworn I shut my door last night" Alice said as she put on her slippers.

Alice runs down the stairs looking for the cat, when she hears another Meow coming from downstairs. Alice turned on all the lights downstairs and checked everywhere she could but found no sign of a cat. As Alice turned the lights off and began heading upstairs thinking it was all in her head she hears another meow coming from the back door. Alice turns on the outside light and opens the door to the back, and sees a cat standing in the shadows.

"How did you get outside Mr. Kitty?" Alice mutters to herself as she chases the strange cat into the forest.

The light of the full moon shines down into the forest thicket and Alice begins to start seeing the cat more clearly as she chases it deeper into the forest. The cat is very slender almost fox like and its fur seems to have different colors which Alice assumes is just a trick of the moonlight. Too distracted by trying to get further details of the cat, Alice fails to realize she's been chasing the cat in a straight line for a few minutes now and has yet to hit a tree or even stumble on one of the larger trees roots.

The mysterious cat keeps gains distance becoming more and more engulfed by the shadows as Alice is totally oblivious to the fact that the trees are actually lined up in perfect symmetry and the light of the moon seems to shine perfectly in front of her. Eventually the only part of the cat Alice can see is its tail which now oddly appears to be in the shape of a question mark. As the last part of the cat's tail disappears Alice then realizes there is a large deep hole in the ground at the trunk of a massive tree.

Careful not to get to close Alice leans over and tries peering into the hole but sees only a vast darkness. Sighing with disappointment that she lost the cat Alice turns around to go home when she sees the cat floating in front of her face. Its eyes are narrow, sharp and glowing purple; it's smiling with a row of dozens of sharp little teeth. And in deep mischievous voice the cat says, "Hello Alice."

Startled by the sudden appearance of the cat floating in front of her face and it talking, Alice stumbles back and falls down the hole. She screams as she falls down the hole which is filled with swirling colors. Then the colors begin quickly disappearing and everything goes black for her.

Alice woke up in the dirt, still in her pajamas. Alice begins wiping the dust off her pajamas and believes that she dreamt up everything with the cat and went sleep walking into the forest until she looks up. The first thing she notices is that there is not a single tree around her; the next is the desolate land in which she now resides.

Is this Wonderland she wonders out loud? "Hello?" Alice calls out. No answer. "Is there anyone out there?" she calls again; still no reply.

Alice looks around her for any signs of where she is but the only thing she can spot nearby is a dried out dark tree stump with two arrows pointing down opposite paths. One arrow pointing to the left says "House of cards" And the other arrow pointing right says "Village of Tresek". Alice looks to the left where the "House of cards" is supposed to be and sees a long and rather dull path. Then she looks to the right and sees that the path to the village is shorter. When her stomach begins to growl her decision is made up and she sets off on the path to the right.

After about an hour of walking Alice arrives at the village to find out its nothing but empty ruins; the buildings are all smashed or burned, there's no sign of anyone else and an ominous sense of dread fills the air. As Alice carefully navigates the village's ruins, she begins to imagine how it might have looked before being destroyed, streets filled with happy people and beautiful décor all around and sorrow begins filling her heart. "Who could have done this sort of thing?" she asks herself.

After navigating the village ruins some more and imagination painting more and more of what she believes the village looked like before her stomach grumbled again very loudly. Remembering what she came for Alice begins searching the more intact houses or buildings for signs of food. Unsure of what is a house and what is a shop Alice checks everywhere she thinks she will find any food losing more and more hope after each empty building.

As night creeps up on her Alice begins to shiver in cold and is forced to stop looking for food and instead look for shelter. Her search is cut short as it's soon to dark to see more than ten feet in front of her; Alice retraces her steps tripping a few times on concrete blocks or other small sturdy objects completely hidden in the dark until she finds a building and settles for it.

Eager to get inside and forgetting to step carefully Alice trips on something and lands with her hands on some broken glass. Her hands get cut up and she starts crawling on her hands and knees careful to avoid anymore broken glass until she finds a corner and crawls up into a ball. Shivering cold, bleeding, and alone, Alice cries softly thinking about her home and warm bed until sleep catches her.

Alice wakes up as the morning sun is beginning to rise. Hungrier than ever before and still cold she inspects the cuts on her hands, they stopped bleeding and weren't very deep but she still risked the chance of infection if she didn't get them cleaned and wrapped up. Alice stood up and wrapped her arms around her chest trying to keep herself warm as she continued her search for food.

As she neared the center of the village, Alice heard strange noises which made her stop and hide behind a partially intact house. She didn't know what sort of creatures she would find in this place but she didn't want them to find her first. The strange sounds she heard moments ago were replaced with the sound of footsteps, and for a moment Alice contemplated running out from her hiding spot to see who else was there when another thought came to her. What if the person here now is the person responsible for the destruction of this village?

Tap, Tap, Tap; The foot steps got closer and closer as Alice stood perfectly still in her spot not sure if she should turn and run or just remain silent where she was. Tap, Tap, whatever was coming was coming closer still as Alice's imagination made her even more frightened then she originally was. As the footsteps came closer they became louder and louder and Alice kept imagining some massive horrifying creature trying to sneak up on her but failing miserably; until the footsteps stopped only a few feet from Alice.

Silence; after the footsteps stopped the only thing Alice could hear was her own heavy breathing. Slowly she peeked hear head around the corner and saw nothing, then she took a couple steps out from hiding and sighed in relief. She probably just imagined those footsteps out of her hunger.

Then Alice turned back around and there was a massive six foot tall brown rabbit leaning over her. She yelped and fell back, as the rabbit jumped in surprise as well. "Oh my, I'm terribly sorry for frightening you little girl." The rabbit said.

It was male and had an Australian type of accent, as the top of its left ear had been chewed off like he had been in a rough fight with a wolf or something. The rabbit was wearing a worn green square patterned sweater vest with different buttons closing it up. He also had some tattered brown pants, but no shoes.

"I'm not little." Alice said, as her cheeks started to brighten. "And you didn't frighten me you just surprised me is all."

The rabbit chuckled lightly and offered out his right paw. Alice grabbed it and he helped her to her feet. "My name is March Hair." The rabbit said. "But you may call me March for short."

"Mine is Alice." She said. "Thank you March, and by the way can you tell me where I am?"

"You are in the ruins of the village of Tresek my dear."

"No, no I mean this world, what is this place?"

"It used to be Wonderland but ever since the red queen came to power, well now it has no name. But never mind all that you look like you could use a cup of tea and some scones, how about it?"

Alice wasn't sure what to make of March, if he was really as nice as he seemed or if there was some angle to him. But when Alice's stomach rumbled she was reminded of her hunger again and realized she didn't have much choice. Reluctantly she followed the rabbit as it made sure to walk slowly so she wouldn't be left behind.

"So Mr. March Hair," she said. "What are you doing here in this place?"

March let out a light, but sad chuckle and said, "Cheshire told me to come here and pick up some 'Tapeeque chairs'. Which I have no idea what it is but he disappeared before explaining more and he only said that it was extremely important that we have them. I'm starting to think this whole thing was a practical joke by him, but I did find you so some good came out of it."

March turned to Alice and smiled, and her heart warmed a little as she knew that she met a new friend and somehow knew she could trust him. They spent the next few hours walking in complete silence as the village became less and less visible. Alice was still starving and starting to feel heavy fatigue when March stopped her.

They were now standing in front of a charred forest that started showing very small signs of new life around, like mushrooms. March led Alice to a large decaying tree stump that was about three times the size of March. He sniffed the air, then looked all around him too make sure no one or nothing else was around. Then he tapped on the tree stump with his left foot twice and the stump opened up inwards like a door.

He turned to Alice and said, "It's a secret passage to my home. My brother and I built it many years ago when the red queen began rising to power. It keeps her cards off our trail completely and is fun ride to boot." Then March winked at her and dived into the tree trunk, leaving Alice all alone in the dead woods. Still a little shaken up about how she originally came to this land, Alice debates walking away too find some food in the forest or follow March. Eventually Alice sighs and dives into the tree stump, screaming all the way down.

At first the fall is straight down then it curves, and spins in circles, and loops a couple times. Everything is completely pitch black in the tunnel so Alice can't tell which way she's heading. At one point in the ride it feels like she's going up, when she sees a bright light coming from the end and is launched about 20 feet into the air.

Alice shrieks as gravity takes hold of her again and she has no idea how she's going to land without injuring herself. She closes her eyes expecting the worst any moment now. Then something warm and soft squeezes her sides and she stopped falling. As she opens her eyes she sees March holding her up and smiling.

"You're a lot lighter than I anticipated I did not think that you would launch up that high, are you alright Alice?" March said as he put Alice down on the ground gently.

"I'm fine," she replies.

Alice looks around her and sees a clean and plant life filled area around her. There's a small but steep hill going up in front of her that is lined with hundreds of different colored small mushrooms on the sides. March leads her up to the top of the hill and she gets a great view of a small valley. There's a small cottage in an open plain of grass with a long curvy table that's filled with tea cups and pots in front of the cottage. Out not too far in the distance Alice can see a beautiful lake with some mountains further past it. To the left of the cottage Alice can't make out much of the lands there but there seems to be some massive red structure. To her right the lands look the same as to the left and behind her Alice can see the village she met March in.

The village looks more pleasant from the distance then it does from up close Alice thinks to herself. And after she was done taking in the view March says, "Now how about that tea and something to eat?"

"Sure." Alice replies with a smile as the two walk down to the rabbits cottage.


	3. Chapter 2 The cottage

Chapter 2: The cottage

March's cottage had a nice green patch of grass in a small circular area around it. There was no fence blocking it off but from the lack of other creatures around it was not necessary. The tea table though curvy, was very neat and clean and reached about 25 feet out extending to the ends of the grass.

March checked each of the several tea pots and dozens of little tea cups but could not find any tea around. "Well now this is embarrassing." He said. "You find yourself a seat anywhere you like and I will be back shortly."

Then March; carrying as many tea pots as he could in his arms slipped into the cottage. Alice looked around the table that had a tea cup at every chair as if expecting many other guests. Eventually Alice found a spot in the middle of the table facing the cottage and pulled out a chair.

Her feet hung in the air with her toes only a couple inches from the ground, so she swung them back in forth when March came back outside with a deep blue colored tea pot. He walked over to her and filled her tea cup up, set the tea pot down next to her and ran back inside. Alice took a sip of the tea, it had the strong taste of blueberries and she quickly finished her cup.

It was an overly delicious drink to her and she poured herself another cup, and then finished that quickly as well. When Alice was onto her fifth cup March had come back out carrying a platter of treats. There were a few dozen slices of some pinkish sliced up meat, with some carrot cubes, and slices of dark bread.

March set down the tray in front of Alice and said, "I'm not sure how hungry you were so I just brought out some appetizers."

March took a seat across the table in front of Alice as she immediately started digging into the food. The slices of meat tasted similar to ham and turkey, it wasn't overly delicious but it was still good, and with how hungry Alice was to her it was like heaven. The bread tastes like normal wheat bread but with a strange hint of cinnamon in it which made her mouth water. March sat there enjoying his carrot cubes as Alice stuffed her face.

When Alice ate everything that March brought to her she sat back, let out a small burp and thanked March greatly for the meal. March seemed delighted to have her and simply smiled. Then he got up and said, "Sounds like your ready for dessert."

"Dessert?" Alice asked incredulously.

March nodded at her and went back into the cottage taking the dirty tray with him.

When he came back out, he was holding a smaller tray with small plates that held three different slices of cakes. There was two slices of each cake on the platter each on there own separate plate. Alice's face lit up with utmost delight as March passed her a few plates of cake and then sat down with his cake slices.

Unable to contain her delight Alice began to cry. March saw her tears and asked soothingly "Now, now what's wrong dear?"

Still crying; Alice said, "You're just so nice to me and you don't hardly know me at all."

March laughed lightly as he passed her a handkerchief to wipe her tears away with. Then he said, "Well in dark times like this someone has to be able to always show kindness to anyone. Otherwise I fear the entire world would be swallowed in sorrow and madness. I only wish there others like me out in the world. But enough of that lets eat, and by the way the carrot cake is my favorite, you should try it first."

Alice finished wiping away her tears and grabbed one of the forks on the table, and as March suggested she started with the cake that had a carrot design on it. To her surprise it tasted exactly like carrot cake from her world. The next cake had what looked like a puffy strawberry designed into the top of the frosting. It tasted like a very rich and creamy strawberry almost like she was eating a pudding instead of cake.

After finishing two of the three cake pieces Alice finished her eighth cup of tea and went to pour some more but the tea pot was completely empty. She turned to March, whom was still enjoying his carrot cake and was just now taking the last bite of it when Alice spoke; "excuse me March? Can I have some more of, um well whatever was in this tea pot?" Then she lifted up her empty tea pot and leaned it down to show him it was empty.

March grabbed the empty pot and said, "Its moon berry tea. Not one of my favorites but Cheshire absolutely loves the stuff, and I am guessing at your rate of consumption you do to."

Then March went back into the cottage with the empty tea pot. He returned with two teapots though and set one down next to Alice and the other next to himself. Then he poured some tea from his pot into a cup, sipped from it and began eating his other slice of cake.

When they both finished their cake, March invited Alice inside the cottage to show her around. She accepted gracefully so as to not be rude, but wondered how much could there be to be shown around in there. The cottage was about 12 feet high and looked to be only 20 feet or so in diameter.

Very much to Alice's surprise the cottage was enormous on the inside. In fact it was several times larger inside than it was outside. Alice wondered how that was possible while she inspected the place. The first room they were in was like a large circular living room lined with purple carpet and had several doors with different design patterns and colors. The doors actually circled the entire room, including the door leading outside.

Alice simply stood inside the first room gawking when March began to talk, "Well I was most certainly not expecting a reaction like this. Then again you are completely unpredictable so far."

"How is this even possible?" Alice asks.

"In truth I am not entirely sure. I didn't build this place; my brother and I just discovered it many years ago. It is said the Jabberwocky's built it, and that this place is intertwined through different zones. Which would not surprise me at all it took me a few years to completely learn where everything is and how to safely navigate my way out. Although I will admit I get lost incredibly easy."

Then March led Alice to the door directly across from them, it opened up into a long slanted hallway that had three more doors in it. The first door was directly at the end of the hall way, while the other two were on both sides of it about 6 feet apart from each other. The hallway was a little small and only had enough room for one person at a time, and walking down it felt really awkward.

March took Alice into the door on the left; it was a normal sized square shaped room. There was a small bed with a white sheet on it sitting in one of the corners to the end. The rest of the room was filled with shelves that reached almost to the ceiling. The shelves were stocked with what looked like various medicine supplies as well as various bottles of medicine.

March sat Alice down onto the bed while he left the room, and then returned a few minutes later holding a bucket of water and some rags. He set the bucket of water down next to her and dipped one of the rags into it. Then He took her hands and started wiping away the dirt and blood that had accumulated over them.

"I'm sorry I had completely forgotten about your hands up until just moment ago, this should have been my first priority." March said as he continued cleaning her hands off.

"My stomach begs the differ" Alice replied.

March finished cleaning her hands and was now drying them with another rag. "Yes well this could get infected I will have to pour some anti germ on them before wrapping them up." March said.

Then when he was finished March walked over to some of the shelves on the wall to the side of Alice and, to her total surprise jumped up almost hitting the ceiling and grabbed a vile filled with orange liquid from the top most shelf. He landed silently then walked over to Alice uncorking the vile.

As March kneeled down to her he said, "Don't worry this will not hurt at all." Then Alice offered her hands out to him. The cuts on her hands were small and covered mostly her palms. March poured a bit of the orange liquid onto her hands, and as he promised it did not hurt, she didn't even feel it.

The liquid sizzled over her wounds and March put the cork back onto the vile and set it aside. Then he grabbed a neat white cloth and waited for the anti germ liquid to stop sizzling and dissolve. When it finally did he wrapped up the palms of her hands very gently, and then asked her if it was too tight. When she said, "no" March grabbed the bucket and tossed the other rags into a small trash tin next to the door. Next March left the room again leaving Alice alone but this time only for a minute. When he returned they continued the tour.

Each of the doors in the living room led to some place new and completely different from before. They usually led to some type of hallway with even more doors in it, but a couple times the doors led to a single massive room. The first single massive room was the kitchen where there was dozens of plates, tea pots, tea cups, and plates stacked around waiting to be washed. There was also several rags, or scrubs just lying around.

Next March led Alice into the library which was absolutely enormous; it was the biggest room in the entire cottage. It was circular and over 100 yards in diameter; it spiraled upwards for at least 9 stories. Each floor had the same type of book case that reached up to the ceilings and spiraled around the room leading to the next set of stairs. The bookshelves were also completely filled with books; there were millions of them in the library.

"This is the most important room in this house." March said. "It contains all the literature, art, and history of wonderland that was not destroyed by the red queen. This is just a fragment of the vast knowledge and cultures wonderland has to offer."

"But why did the red queen destroy the other stuff?" Alice asked.

"Simple." March said. "Knowledge is power and the queen wants to keep the people ignorant so they can never get the inspiration or hope needed to rise against her. Though from what I understand no one would want to, the people live in paradise in her kingdom. Still I hope one day to create as many copies of all of this a possible and spread it out all over wonderland."

Alice took in the amazement of the library for a few more minutes until they moved on. The next place March took her he said was the most dangerous rooms in the entire cottage. The door had two black arrows curving into each other painted on vertically.

When they opened the door the hall looked as normal as any hallway at home, it was long and wide and had about eight doors in total four on each side. Alice began to walk into the hall but March stopped her. She looked up at him and he jumped into the hall and instead of landing right away, he dropped down a few feet.

March helped Alice down into the hallway and for the first time she saw through the optical illusion. The hallway was actually three feet deep and the painting all around it was made so perfectly that from the outside you could not tell that the room was lower. Even the bottoms of the doors were painted the same color and pattern as the floor to complete the optical illusion.

March opened the first door on the left, but they did not go inside. Instead he kept it open and let Alice peer inside; the entire room was upside down. There were long tables, round tables and chairs all five times the size of Alice just sitting on the ceiling like it was the floor. Even the lamps were bigger than Alice and hung upside down as if gravity was flipped.

As Alice leaned into the room wondering if indeed gravity was flipped March came up beside her and tossed a coin into the room. The coin fell straight down to the ceiling, which for that room served as the floor. Alice then understood the dangers of that room, a straight fall down about six stories, it wouldn't kill you but it would hurt a lot and surely break some bones.

The next room March led Alice to was entirely white with a black ripple pattern on the walls. "This room is another optical illusion" March said. "From the outside it just seems irritating to the eyes but there's actually several hallways and passages inside that look exactly the same. I got lost in here for two days until I found my way out again out of pure luck. The danger isn't immediate in this room but I know nothing of how deep it goes."

Then March led Alice to a room that was pitch black entirely, just like the other rooms they didn't go inside just sat outside of it starring in. "I've never been in this room something about it creeps me out." March said. "Normally I wouldn't let that stop me forever my curiosity would have gotten the better of me and I would have at least tried to go in once. However Cheshire warned me to never set foot in this room, he rarely gives such warnings but they are best heeded." Before Alice fully knew what was happening she found herself leaning in further and further into the room without stepping foot inside while March spoke. Something in there was calling to her.

Two red gleaming eyes appeared in the dark room beckoning to Alice. As she was about to set foot inside she was suddenly grabbed by the back of her shirt and tossed away from the room. She fell hard on the ground of the hall when the door slammed shut; March stood with his back against it his eyes wide with fear. Before Alice could speak something slammed against the door making a loud **thud** sound. For a moment all was silent then a low growl was heard through the other side of the door gradually becoming quieter until it faded entirely.

March Helped Alice up and checked to see if she was alright. She asked him what that thing was he just nodded his head and told her he did not know; it was the first time he saw it as well. March led Alice to the last door then said, "As for this last room here, well it's a mystery. The door is locked and I do not have the key. Cheshire says there are some unspeakable horrors behind there but I believe he's just messing around with us."

Finally March Led Alice to the last door in the circular living room; "This is my favorite place in the entire cottage." He said. Then he opened the door and Alice was led into a small rectangular room with five more doors; three in the middle and one on each side. The door to Alice's right was colored pure green with different shades of it in the patterns of trees, leaves, and flowers.

March opened the door and revealed a beautiful expansive field of flowers, oak trees, and various other rows of plants. The place was like a farm teeming with glorious agricultural life. "This;" March said gesturing to everything in the green room, "is where I grow all of the fruits, berries, and other ingredients for making tea, bread, and my various other sweets."

"This place is beautiful." Alice Admired.

"This room is rather special." March replied. "It has its own sun and moon, and even rains whenever it needs to for the plants. Somehow this room knows what plants are placed where and exactly how much sunlight or rain they need, and adjusts itself accordingly. I planted some flower beds over the hill on the right, so you can go enjoy them sometime. But make sure not to wander too far in here this place seems to almost go on endlessly, I haven't traveled too far into it just far enough to plant what we need.

One day though I hope to gather as many different plants from wonderland as I can and fill this entire room up with them so in case anything every happens to them there will be plenty of extras in here."

When Alice finished Admiring the 'Green room' March led her to the other room on the opposite side of the 'Green room'. This door was multicolored with patterns of, a needle and thread, a ball of yarn, and scissors. Before March opened the door he turned to Alice and asked, "Can you guess what might be in this room?"

Alice studied the design patterns on the door for a moment then said, "The sewing room?"

March smiled at her and gestured for her to open the door. Alice did so and despite all of the things she saw she was still surprised when she opened that door and looked inside. There were stacks about two stories high of neatly folded cloth, with a variety of colors, all around an expansive room. "This is where Hatter designs new hats, or makes us whatever clothing we may need on his free time. If you asked kindly I am sure he would gladly make you a new set of clothes since yours are, well dirty and a little worn."

"You keep mentioning other people, but I haven't seen anyone else here." Alice said.

"Ahh you think I have gone mad?"

"Well no, its just you're the only other person I have met here and this place is enormous. Like this place is its own universe in here."

"Hehe, I was just messing around with you a bit. But Hatter and Cheshire are out hunting right now. They should be getting back by now it is almost nightfall. Would you like to meet them?"

Alice closed the fabric room door behind her, and then looked at the other three doors left unexplored. Two of them had simple brown color with no special designs on them. The middle one was the same except there were paintings on it not as neat as the other designs of every other door. These paintings were, a brown rabbit head facing to the left, with a white rabbit head in symmetrical opposite to it. Then there was a black painting of a top hat that was tilted, and finally a purple headed cat with pointy ears and a very mischievous grin.

Alice starred at the Cat's head, trying to figure out why it was so familiar to her when there was some noises coming from outside. "There here." March said. Then he grabbed Alice's arm and led her back outside.

March and Alice emerged from the house to see a young boy around Alice's age, and a strange type of cat on his shoulder. The cat had a purple head with long pointy ears, a blue body with stripes a lighter color then its face, and a tail that curled almost into a question mark. It had no fur at all but looked naturally so, and its eyes were purple.

Alice recognized the cat right away. "You!" She said accusingly towards the cat. "You're the one who startled me into that hole a couple nights ago. You're the one who brought me here!"

The cat turned its attention to Alice. Its body disappeared leaving only a head. Its eyes became narrow slits and its mouth widened in a large grin with dozens of sharp little teeth. Then the cat spoke saying, "Hello again. Alice."


	4. Chapter 3 A new home

Chapter 3: A new home

Cheshire reappeared fully behind Alice. "I am not sure at all what you are talking about." he said.

Alice turned around to face Cheshire. He was floating in the air with his front paws folded in front of him like he was lying down on the ground. His eyes were now big and black. His grin was gone now, replaced almost into a frown.

Alice turned around to face Cheshire. "You just said my name you little cretin." She said. "That just proves you know what you're guilty of."

"And what is that exactly?" Cheshire asked innocently.

"Coming to my world and luring me to that portal hole in the forest, then pushing me down it."

"Well I admit that the first part is true. I did come to your world but only to play around a bit. I didn't mean to spook you so bad, or make you fall down my hole."

Alice still did not believe Cheshire but before she could interrogate him more, Hatter spoke up. "Cheshire why is it that you always find yourself in trouble no matter where you go?" He said. "You even got this poor girl involved in your shenanigans."

Alice turned to face Hatter and her cheeks reddened. He was tall, had fair skin, broad shoulders and chest. Under his brown top hat she should see strands of dark hair that looked like it was combed to the left side of his head avoiding his eyes. All in all Alice thought he was incredibly handsome.

Alice was so distracted starring at Hatter she didn't even realize Cheshire was gone. Hatter walked up to Alice and said, "My name is Hatter. I'm sorry about Cheshire he can be incredibly mischievous at times but he's not evil. So what brings you to our happy little home?"

Alice stood there unable to find the breath to speak when March came to her rescue. "I found her." He said. "She was wondering the ruins of Tresek village cold, hungry and scarred. So I brought her here."

That brought Alice out of her trance. "Well when you put it like that I sound so helpless." She said.

Cheshire appeared out of nowhere again saying, "March what happened to all the Moon berry tea?"

"Alice drank what little was left." March replied. "And if you want me to make anymore ever again you will explain yourself to her this instant."

Cheshire let out a low little growl but reluctantly gave in. "Alright then fine." He said. "Alice I am sorry, truly I did not know that you would be spooked so much from our little game. I also was unaware that anyone else was capable of following me into your world. I can only visit there so often and I actually have no idea how to send you back."

Alice wasn't entirely sure if Cheshire was telling the truth or not but she couldn't do much about it regardless. So she just sighed, and took a seat at the table. Hatter was sitting on the end and was starring at her, and March went back inside to grab everyone some tea.

Alice, Hatter, and Cheshire sat around awkwardly not sure what to say to each other. All of them were waiting for March to return to break the awkward silence and get some conversations going but he was taking abnormally long. Eventually Alice found the courage to speak up. "So um Hatter." She said.

"March tells me you might be able to make me some new clothes?"

Hatter looks up at her cheerfully and says, "Yes, if you can imagine it I can make it. Well as long as there's some form of cloth involved."

"So how is it that you came into such a trade? Making clothes and top hats I mean?"

"Well I started when I was really young, and discovered I had a great talent for clothing design. So it quickly became a hobby of mine and that's really all there is too it. In truth though Me and March are both of simple taste so new hats aside I don't really get many opportunities to design or make new clothes.

I can also make shoes, but again I'm the only one who wears them and I quickly found a design that I love so that only went so far. If you want I can start measuring you right after tea, and get you into a lovely pink dress so you're not running around in your pajamas."

Alice thought this over for a moment then said, "I would like a white dress instead."

Hatter smiled at her and said, "I do have plenty of white."

Then March came out carrying a tray with four tea pots on it. He placed a tea pot down where he would sit then reached over the table putting another one in front of Alice. He then walked over to Hatter put a tea pot next to him; finally he went to Cheshire who sat at the other end of the table from Hatter and placed the last tea pot by him.

Everyone sat around the curved tea table grabbing one of the many tea cups placed all around it and filled them up. Then they sat there drinking their tea and having light conversation. The tension in the air from Alice and Cheshire quickly disappeared. After tea; as promised Hatter led Alice to his fabric room and began measuring her.

"So Alice, what are your plans now that you're here in wonderland?" Hatter asked while he measured her.

"Well I don't actually have any."

"Would you like to stay here with us? I know March enjoys your company and Cheshire can become bearable with time."

Alice laughed a little then said, "And what about you? How would you feel having me around here girl-ing up the place?"

"I think I could become used to it, I need someone neutral here. I've already begun going mad. Between Cheshire's shenanigans, and March's, well just March I could use someone normal."

Both of them started laughing, like they were long time friends. Their laughs filled the room echoing all around them. When they finally stopped laughing Hatter was able to finish measuring Alice and grabbed a couple stacks of white cloth lying around.

As Hatter set to work Alice said, "I will live with you guys. But on one condition."

While keeping his eyes focused on his new project Hatter said, "What's that?"

"I want you to tell me everything it is you know about Wonderland. The red queen, the house of cards and whatever else you can think of I need to know."

Hatter sighed then said, "I suppose if you're going to be living here in wonderland with us then you have the right to know this stuff. The first thing is around anyone else but I, Cheshire, or March; do not call this place Wonderland. For reasons unknown the red queen hates that name and forbid anyone from calling this world by it again. As far as the red queen and everyone else are concerned this place no longer has a name.

Next thing is the house of cards. It's what the red queen calls her kingdom. It's a place of utmost beauty and greatness. The only condition to live there in the queens grand kingdom is you must first serve your life to her, but for a place of paradise it's a small condition for anyone. At least that's what everyone including myself believed."

"What do you mean?" Alice asked.

"Well the first part is right the place is beautiful or so I'm told."

"Told by who?"

"You know for a girl with a lot of questions you sure don't wait around for the answers."

A moment of pause then Alice said, "I'm sorry please continue."

"Anyways the truth about the house of cards is that it's only paradise for the queen and her select hand of servants. For everyone else it's either a life of dull servitude with occasional tastes of paradise or it's a waking nightmare. The servants inside the castle get all they need and enjoy some delights when the queen deems them worthy of it but they work like slaves. Everyone else lives in poverty and fear of the red queen."

"Why don't they just leave then?"

"And where would they go? Hatter asked rhetorically. "You've seen it outside the lands are barren and lifeless. It's like that almost everywhere in Wonderland. Everywhere except here and in the house of cards that is. The people may live in poverty there but it's better than absolutely nothing.

Still I'm sure there are at least a handful of people that would at least try to find a new life outside of the house of cards but the queen has guards set up all around the kingdom. These guards though, do not keep people out they keep them in. The queen believes that anyone who doesn't want to live in her false paradise is a traitor. And if your caught trying to escape then your sent to execution. Off with your head or so I'm told is how it goes."

"So if no one can leave then how do you know all of this?" Alice asked suspiciously.

Hatter stopped working on Alice's dress which by now was almost complete to study her. When he was done he said, "I suppose from your point of view this all does sound very suspicious." Hatter continued his work on the dress.

"Well luckily for us we have a spy in the house of cards, employed directly to the red queen as her assistant. White Rabbit; he's March's brother. He only comes by when he has an assignment that requires him to leave the house of cards. I've only met him once since my time here and he's nothing at all like his brother."

"So you haven't always lived here?"

"No, not always."

"Well then where did you live before?"

Hatter said nothing he just finished up the finer touches on the dress then got up and walked over to Alice. He held it in front of her to see if it looked right then he guided her back to the hall. Finally when they got into the hall hatter spoke again; "lets find you somewhere in our room to change."

Hatter then opened the door with the paintings of rabbits, a hat and the cat on it. Inside was a square tiled room about 50 feet around, the ceiling only reached to 8 feet. Three beds sat side by side on one end of the room while the rest of it was empty. The room had paintings all over the walls, of knights in white armor, some pieces from a chess board, and what looks like medieval jester juggling fire. Alice looked up at the ceiling and saw a beautiful night sky painted on there filled with dozens of tiny stars.

Hatter stepped up next to Alice who was still admiring the painting on the ceiling which was considerably better than the ones on the walls. "Do you like it?" He asked.

"The paintings on the walls were made by me and March. Cheshire painted us the ceiling; it glows in the dark as well."

"It's incredible," Alice said astonished.

Hatter then handed Alice the dress and said, "Here try this on in our room and I will be just outside the door. Come out whenever you're ready." Then hatter shut the door behind him leaving Alice alone in the room. She studied the paintings a little more then stripped herself of her pajamas and put on the dress.

The dress felt smooth and warm against her skin, it fit tightly as well but not too much that she couldn't move about freely in it. It went down to her knees and she walked around the room a bit enjoying it when she remembered Hatter was on the other side of the door waiting for her. She opened the door and stepped out into the hall where Hatter was leaning against the wall. Hatter just starred at her stunned as she spun around for him and asked, "How do I look?"

Hatter after a long moment managed to find his words and said, "You look beautiful, Alice." Then he smiled at her. Alice started to blush and then hugged hatter. He spun her around a couple times then let her go and took a step back awkwardly.

Hatter and Alice starred into each others eyes neither of them knew what to do or say next; so they just starred at each other admiring one another. Then Cheshire appeared in front of them breaking up their awkward silence. "You look lovely in that dress my dear." Cheshire said.

They were both a little startled at Cheshire's sudden appearance and took a couple steps back from each other and turned to look at Cheshire. "Sorry to break up your romantic embrace, but March and I were wondering if Alice had made a decision?"

Hatter looked at her with the same curiosity that Cheshire had. Alice looked at her dress, and then briefly glanced at Cheshire who was sitting casually in the air. She didn't need to think for more than a few seconds when she said, "yes."


	5. Chapter 4 Settling in

Chapter 4: Settling in

Hatter was in his fabric room making Alice some shoes, while Cheshire was in their shared bedroom creating a surprise for Alice. While those two were hard at work doing their things, March got Alice a small paint brush, and some different colored paints. He told her to paint whatever she thought best represented her and after several minutes of thinking about it Alice decided to draw a yellow flower.

Shortly after Alice finished painting her flower on the door Cheshire appeared behind her and March and said, "Your surprise is ready." Then he disappeared again. Alice opened the door to their shared room and she and March walked in together. The room was almost exactly the same now except there were only two beds at the end of it instead of three.

For a moment Alice and March thought this was some sort of prank Cheshire was setting them up for when they turned their heads to the left of the room for the first time. And they saw poles sticking out of the ground reaching almost all the way up to the ceiling. The poles had rods on the top of them that linked them together and went all around in a rectangular fashion

There was velvet drapes hung on all sides of the poles with a bed in the center. "This cottage has many, many rooms but only one bedroom that we must all share." Cheshire said. "Since you're going to be living here with us you're also going to be stuck sharing the same room. And because you're the only girl I felt as if you would want your privacy. It isn't your own room but it should do the trick."

Alice turned around and hugged Cheshire. "Thank you" She said. Cheshire's body disappeared and Alice's arms that were wrapped around him suddenly fell, causing her to stumble forward a couple steps. Cheshire's head remained though and floated in front of her. He smiled at her before disappearing all together; for the first time Alice has ever seen though this smile was pleasant and not mischievous.

Alice went to her bed and closed all the curtains around it. She had about four feet of room from her bed to the curtains which was enough. It would take her some time to adjust too all of this but part of her enjoyed it. Her old life was so dull and unexciting, even her games with her brother were gradually becoming more boring. Things here in wonderland were different though, she hadn't been here long but already she was beginning to love the place, and the people.

Her thoughts went to Hatter, as she imagined what he would be like in her world. Then she began imagining other things about him and her cheeks reddened. She quickly pushed those sorts of thoughts out of her head for now and left the room to visit hatter and see how her shoes were coming along.

When she got into the fabric room and went to Hatters work desk that was only about twenty steps into the room he was nowhere to be found. A pair of black slip on shoes sat on his work desk. Alice picked up the shoes and started putting them on to see if they fit when Hatter returned.

He came up from the opposite end of the desk that leads deeper into the fabric room holding a couple stacks of white and grey threads. "Ahh, perfect timing," He said. "I just finished your shoes and shortly realized you do not have any socks do you?"

Alice looked down at her bare feet; she only had her slippers when she came to wonderland. And she put them away when Hatter told her he would make her some shoes. "Yeah I guess socks would be just as helpful as shoes wouldn't they?"

Hatter smiled at her, took a seat and quickly went to work on turning the fabric piles he brought into pairs of socks for Alice. Alice stood amazed at how quickly eh worked, his hands were like magic cutting, sewing and measuring everything together until it took the form of what he wanted. She wasn't really paying attention when he made her dress, which she was still wearing; but now her eyes were fixed on his craftsmanship.

Within mere minutes Hatter had converted the stacks of fabric into five pairs of white and grey socks for Alice. He then handed them to her so she could try them on. She did and they fit rather well, the socks went halfway up to her calves and felt very smooth. Next she tried on her shoes which were a little loose but had buckles on the top so she could tighten them to her comfort.

When Alice finished putting on her shoes she walked around in them a bit and they worked great. She could walk easily in them could probably even run around and they were easy to put on or take off. "Hatter this is amazing. How can you do this, and so fast? Make shoes, clothes, well all of it, did you have like some sort of mentor?"

Hatter laughed lightly and said, "No this is something I discovered not only I had a talent for but was something I really enjoyed doing. I've made several mistakes before some unrecoverable, but over the years I just got better and faster. I can't explain it but this is just a natural talent I have, wonderland is probably filled with people like me who can do things that to them may seem like nothing but to everyone else it's incredible.

Take March for example, his green room in this cottage. He grows acres and acres of plants, fruits, and foods in there and too him it's like breathing. Cheshire and I took over the place for a week each splitting the work in half and by the time March had returned over half his crops were dead. Needless to say he never let us tend to his agriculture again and whenever we need something from out of the cottage me or Cheshire will go out and get it."

Alice was in tears laughing at Hatters story; it wasn't a mean laugh just a playful one. Soon enough she had Hatter laughing with her. March came in to both of them laughing and stood at the door for a moment confused. When they finally calmed down March approached them.

"Not to be rude or blunt but Alice my dear you could really use a bath." March said.

Alice sniffed herself a bit and realized he was right. March told her that the cottage actually had no bathrooms so they had to do all their business outside somewhere and they had to take their baths in a nearby lake. The walk to the lake was about an hour away from the cottage.

When they arrived there March placed down a towel and a small jar that had some anti germ gel inside of it that they used to help kill off whatever germs got on them. It worked just like soap and shampoo back on earth. She could use it in her hair and on her skin, and it smelled like fresh spring flowers.

Alice started getting undressed when she turned to march and said, "Hey I could use my privacy here."

March nodded and said, "Ill be nearby holler if you need me." Then he hopped away.

Alice made a face at him as he hopped away then got fully undressed and stepped into the lake. As soon as her foot was inside she pulled it back and shrieked loudly. March came running back looking prepared for war seconds later. Alice covered her privates with her hands, when March said, "Alice what's wrong!"

"The water is freezing!" She said.

March calmed down a bit and chuckled. Then he said, "Well the river does flow from the mountains, but don't worry as long as you don't stay in there too long you won't catch a cold." Then March hopped away again leaving Alice alone, but now she knew he wasn't too far away.

After several minutes of standing in the freezing water that was up to her neck Alice finally stopped shivering and started to enjoy the cool water. She started rubbing the gel on her skin form her feet and up; it worked perfectly fine underwater which was nice she wouldn't have to remerge to clean herself constantly. Then Alice dunked her head in the water and started to clean her hair.

When Alice finished cleaning herself up she stepped out of the lake and started drying herself off with the towel March had brought. When she finished doing that she looked around for some spare clothes then realized she didn't have any, and the only clothes she did have were dirty. So Alice covered herself up with the towel and called March over and explained her problem to him.

"Oh my." He said. "I'm going to have to run back and have Hatter make you some more new clothes. He should already be working on some more dresses for you but I forgot to tell him to make you underwear. He's going to have to use these for proper measurements." Then March gestured to Alice's underwear.

"He can't touch my underwear!" Alice protested as her entire face turned red.

"Sorry dear but you have nothing else and you need fresh clothes. Besides he is the same age as yourself you know."

And before Alice could continue arguing with him; March was already racing off carrying her dirty dress with her underwear bundled inside it leaving her alone at the lake. She was furious for a while but eventually Alice cooled down. Then about twenty minutes after March ran off with her clothes, Cheshire appeared.

"Hello Alice, March says you need company while he gets you new clothes." Cheshire said.

"It couldn't hurt, hey wait how did March get back so fast? It took us like an hour to walk here."

"Yes but he was running remember and rabbits are very fast when they want to be."

"Then if he just got back to the cottage how did you get here so fast Cheshire?"

Cheshire only smiled mischievously at her as his body disappeared and his head rolled around going upside, then back up in circles around her.

"You are just like your character in the book." Alice said.

"Cheshire's smile disappeared and he stopped spinning circles around her. Then his whole body reappeared and he asked, "Character from a book?"

"Nothing" Alice said quickly.

Cheshire's smile returned as he asked, "would you like to hear some stories about the various places I have been?"

Alice thought it over for a moment. Was it another prank of some kind she thought to herself. Then she decided that Cheshire may mischievous but he wasn't as bad as she kept leading him out to be. She only thought he would keep pulling pranks on her because of what March told her about him. And it wasn't fair to judge some one on another's opinion of them; so Alice listened intently to Cheshire's stories.

Cheshire's stories fascinated Alice; she wondered what it would be like to visit some of the places he described to her. Before she even knew it March was back with a light blue colored dress similar to her old one, and some pink underwear. Cheshire disappeared and March turned around as Alice got dressed.

When she finished she told March Cheshire was telling her stories about all these amazing places he'd been to. "I hope you don't believe in all of those stories." March said. "Cheshire is not exactly known for his honesty."

Cheshire reappeared and said, "Now, now March just because I always lie to you does not mean I would ever lie to our dear Alice." Cheshire's eyes were big and black now like he was pouting.

March did not believe in any of it. "Your lying to me right now cretin."

"Cheshire is any of what you told me true?" Alice asked suspiciously.

"All of it is Alice." Cheshire said sincerely. "Except for the stories that were not true, those were just fun to tell." Then Cheshire laughed a little and disappeared.

When Alice and March returned to the cottage, Hatter and Cheshire were sitting outside at the table drinking tea and laughing with one another. "Were home" Alice called out. Hatter got up and told Alice that he had a whole wardrobe finished and laid out for her on her bed. March went inside to start everyone their dinner.

He returned just under an hour later, making several trips in and out of the cottage carrying trays with, meats, fruits, and desserts on them. The last trip March takes inside is to grab several jugs of water and a few tea pots. Then when March settles in his spot at the table everyone starts eating. Hatter and Cheshire eat the most out of all of them and they mostly eat the meats.

When they all finished eating Cheshire had taken all of the dishes inside to start washing them. The sky was dark now and the moon was almost full. It was a warm cloudless night filled with stars. After enjoying the night sky for a while the rest of them retired to their bedroom. March told Alice that they would deal with her designated chores tomorrow morning.

When Alice got to her bed she found her new clothes all neatly folded onto her bed along with her pajamas wish were now clean. She put her clothes in the corner of the room by her bed, closed her curtains and changed into her pajamas. Then she wished Hatter, and March a good night and crawled under her blanks.

Her bed was even softer than the one she had a home and very cozy. Alice starred at the beautiful ceiling painting which like March told her was glowing a blue luminescence even the stars glowed. She thought about how fun today was, and wondered what tomorrow would bring. Then she fell asleep and dreamed of her brother Aaron and her parents.


	6. Chapter 5 Every day life in Wonderland

Chapter 5: Every day life in wonderland

Alice woke up to and empty bedroom, and a noiseless cottage. She went to her pile of clothes to pick out something to wear which had been replaced by a large coat rack. It was filled with dresses of different colors, styles, and patterns. She had a small pile of socks stacked neatly, and another pair of shoes sitting next to it. Hatter must have gotten up early and decided to give her more of a wardrobe; she thought to herself.

When Alice finished changing into her clothes for the day she went outside to meet everyone. But when she got out there, the table was empty save for a small plate of food placed at her seat. Alice sat down and started to eat, both her food and the tea were cold. After she finished eating, Alice sat around wondering where everyone was. She quickly grew bored though and went into the cottage to look for them.

Alice started with the fabric room to look for hatter but he wasn't at his work table, she looked around a bit then called out to him, when there was no answer she went to go see March. Inside the green room there was no one, but Alice knew this room was several times larger than the rest so she explored around for March a bit while calling out to him. Again she found no one and decided that she didn't want to get lost inside there so she turned back and headed to the kitchen to see Cheshire.

Even the kitchen was empty; there were piles and piles of dirty dishes but no Cheshire. Alice was starting to become frustrated at not finding anyone in the places she thought they would be. Now Alice was searching the entire cottage for them, she went to the rooms she remembered most from her tour. Alice got lost for a few minutes or so but quickly found her bearings when she ended up back outside and took a seat, deciding to wait for whoever would come first.

It wasn't long until March came out of the cottage. "Ah there you are Alice; I was beginning to worry about you."

"There I am." Alice said, letting her frustration and anger carry through her voice. "I searched the entire cottage for any of you but no one was inside. I checked every room except the ones you told me never to go into and still no one."

"I'm sorry my dear, I was in my garden but I left to check on you in bed worried you might be feeling ill. When I found you were gone I went in search of you but we must have just missed each other. Unfortunately you also slept through breakfast so I left out your food on a plate and waited for you. Hatter and Cheshire waited too but they had to go hunting, so I returned to my garden."

Alice calmed down, realizing it wasn't March's fault; it was hers for oversleeping. "How long are Hatter and Cheshire going to be out?" Alice asked.

"They should be back in time for lunch, but that's a ways away."

"So then what should we do until they return?"

"Well I usually keep to my garden or some sorts of chore, speaking of you need some chores to do as well." March thought to himself for a long moment then said, "Well we actually have things all equaled out so there isn't anything for you to do. I mean I'm busy with my garden and cooking. Cheshire washes our clothes and dishes, which I need to remind him to do the dishes.

Then Hatter makes us our clothing, blankets, and cleans dust around the main rooms. I suppose though you can assist one of us from time to time while were doing our chores. This would at least give you something to do when all of us are busy."

Alice decided that it was a fair deal and went with March to his garden to help him out until lunch. Time passed quickly helping March out and when lunch time came along they went to the kitchen to clean up. Then March sent Alice outside to be with Hatter and Cheshire who should be returning any moment then while he prepared lunch.

Outside Hatter and Cheshire were waiting in there spots just like March had said. When they saw her they both smiled and Hatter said, "Well she wakes at last."

"Yeah sorry about that," Alice said while she took her usual seat. "If I had known everyone was such early risers I would have set my alarm."

Hatter and Cheshire just looked at her curiously. She had forgotten they did not know what an alarm clock was. "Never mind" she said.

Soon enough March came out from the cottage with a tray carrying their lunch. They went through the same routine from yesterday and after lunch Hatter invited Alice to go hunting with him and Cheshire. She said no at first but he insisted, so she joined them on the hunt.

After about an hour of walking Alice asked, "So what are we hunting for anyways?"

"Oh today were not actually hunting for anything." Hatter said. "Were going to go play in the mushroom caves today."

"But you told March we were going hunting."

"Yeah we always tell him that. Truthfully it's just an excuse me and Cheshire use so we can go out and play, or search for new places to play. And if we happen to come across something we can eat then we do hunt it. Although I'm sure after all these years March has figured out that we at least don't go hunting."

They walked in silence for a while after that until they finally reached the entrance to a cave that Alice presumed was their destination. The cave was built not to far off from some nearby mountains. Hatter and Cheshire said nothing as they walked into the cave, signaling for Alice to join.

The cave was completely dark and Alice couldn't see anything. After several steps in the dark she tripped and fell catching herself on Hatters shoulders and back. Hatter leaned her back onto her feet then grabbed her hand and guided her through the cave. Alice enjoyed holding Hatters hand, it was warm and strong.

The three of them emerged out of the darkness into an expansive area filled with massive sized brown mushrooms. Light from several holes in the ceiling leaked into the caved allowing them to see inside the cave like they were outside. The massive mushrooms grew all over the place from the floor, the walls and even the ceiling.

"These mushrooms are my favorite kinds in all of wonderland." Hatter said. "Though they may look like ordinary overgrown mushrooms these ones are actually extremely bouncy."

Then Hatter ran up to the closet mushroom and jumped right onto it with as much force as he could muster. The mushroom bent back a little at Hatters extreme force of impact when it suddenly pushed him back sending him flying straight for the wall. Hatter pivoted himself to the side and caught one of the many mushrooms on the walls and just like before was propelled through the air this time heading for the ground where even more mushrooms sat.

Hatter was being launched through the air inside the cave bouncing off of mushroom after mushroom. Soon enough Cheshire jumped in on the trampoline like mushrooms and the two of them were bouncing all around so fast that Alice couldn't keep up without hurting her eyes. Then Hatter hit a wall Mushroom and was propelled deeper into the cave; Alice thought he was going to be launched back by another mushroom but instead he fell past her line of sight screaming as he went down.

Alice shouted for him and was in panic when moments later from falling he launched back up laughing hysterically. He bounced off some more mushrooms until he landed back in front of Alice where he was bent over laughing in tears; even Cheshire was laughing hysterically. Alice got so mad she slapped him right across the face, stopping his laughter.

Hatter stopped laughing but he was still smiling mischievously enjoying his prank a little too much. "I'm sorry." He said sincerely. "Cheshire put me up to it." Alice was almost in tears of mixed emotions when Cheshire came up and slapped Hatter.

Hatter felt his cheek then looked at Cheshire. "Why you little- "Hatter didn't even finish the sentence when he tackled the cat to the ground. Cheshire suddenly grew three times his size as he hit the ground and the two wrestled around. Watching the two wrestle around playfully cheered Alice up and she started walking over to the spot Hatter fell down to see how he did what he did.

When Alice arrived at the spot where Hatter fell, she saw that there was a small fissure in the cave. It wasn't very deep but it was wide and filled with more of the large mushrooms. Alice turned around to see Hatter and March still wrestling around and then climbed up on a mushroom and jumped on it.

The first bounce only put Alice a couple feet up in the air, and she kept bouncing on it like a trampoline until she felt confident enough to try what Hatter did. When Alice landed back on the mushroom she pushed as much of her weight into it and went several feet higher. Then she did it again but this time aimed for another mushroom. She landed on her intended target but was propelled back into the air heading for more mushrooms and soon enough Alice was flying all around the cave bouncing from mushroom to mushroom.

Alice was having so much fun she didn't even notice Cheshire and Hatter had joined her in jumping around. "This is amazing." She called out to them. Hatter smiled and said, "you think that's fun try this out." Then Hatter launched himself off a mushroom and was propelled straight into Cheshire who stayed in his enhanced size. The two bumped into each other and knocked one another into opposite angles. Hatter went up diagonally and Cheshire went almost straight down.

Alice was too busy enjoying their show that she lost her footing on a mushroom and was launched towards the front of the cave, straight on track for the ground instead of another mushroom. Alice landed on her feet and used her momentum to keep rolling; in order to avoid injury. Hatter and Cheshire both turned to look if she was okay and started jumping towards her. They were so focused on her as they jumped onto the last mushrooms that neither of them noticed their new trajectory was putting them straight in each others paths.

"Look out!" Alice shouted as she started to stand up.

Hatter and Cheshire had enough time to see there immediate course of impact and let out a quick yelp, with comically startled faces. Then they smacked into each other with a loud **thud **sound and hit the ground simultaneously. Alice flinched for a moment then walked over to them and started uncontrollably laughing.

Hatter and Cheshire gave each other a quick glance then each grabbed one of Alice's legs and pulled her down to the ground with them. She growled at them for a moment then they all started laughing together. The cave was filled with every one's joyful laughter as they continued bouncing and goofing off.

The three of them returned empty handed and starving. March already had their meals set out for them and they ate up quickly. Then Cheshire went inside the cottage to wash all the dishes while March led Alice to the river to wash up before bed. The water was much colder as the sun began to set in the distant sky. When Alice returned to her bed she thought back on the day; it was the most fun day she ever had in her entire life.

And the next day they all went down to a calmer part of the river where the four of them swam around in the hot sun. Hatter wore some normal shorts, and Alice wore a bathing suit that Hatter had made for her. While March and Cheshire went without clothes because they didn't need any.

The days in wonderland passed into weeks and so forth and were always filled with fun and excitement for Alice. Soon enough she forgot all about her old life entirely; replaced with this newer better one. Months went by but Alice hardly noticed since wonderland didn't have seasons like earth did. The weather was almost always the same in her area, but on occasion it would rain, and sometimes even snow, but it was mostly sunny or partially cloudy.

Alice didn't even know that it had been over a year since she came to wonderland. She seems to no longer care if she can go home or not. Part of her doesn't even know if she would want to anymore. Her time in Wonderland has also seemed to change her; she used to cry easy, and had trouble making friends at home. But here she made friends with Hatter, March, and Cheshire rather easily and she's become tougher.

Alice not only settled into this new life rather easily but she also adjusted fairly well too it. Though that was mostly due to March, he become like an uncle to her. This was her new family and she loved them so very much. She even started playing pranks on everyone, learned mostly from Cheshire. This was her everyday life in wonderland and she soon wishes that she can live like this everyday.


	7. Chapter 6 The history of Hatter

Chapter 6: The history of hatter

One day when Alice, Hatter and Cheshire were out swimming in the river Alice was studying Hatters body again. He had grown since her time here, he'd become taller, more muscular and more handsome all together. She also noticed something about him that she never really paid much attention before; it was this necklace that he seemed to always be wearing. It was usually hidden under his shirt or behind his coat but he always wore it, even while out swimming.

Alice decided it was finally time to ask him about the necklace. "Hey Hatter, what's the story with that necklace? I mean your always wearing it." She said.

Hatter looked down at his Necklace and he seemed to go sad from thinking about it. He starred at the necklace that he was now holding in his palm for a long moment; transported to another time and place. Then he finally looked back up at Alice, sighed and said, "First thing tomorrow I'll tell you, and not just my story, the rest of the story about wonderland. I held back on it because at the time you seemed too fragile to handle it all."

Then Hatter climbed out of the river and dried himself off then put on the rest of his clothes and started jogging back towards the cottage. Alice called out to him as she was trying to dry off to run after him but he only waved her away. As Alice rushed to put on her clothes Cheshire said, "Don't worry he will tell you everything like he promised. He just needs some time alone to figure out how he's going to tell you it all."

When Alice returned to the cottage she hadn't seen Hatter at all, and March didn't know where he was either. Alice asked March about Hatters necklace but his expression only grew sad as well. Then he said, "Hatter just has some things in his past that he wishes he could change."

"What happened to him?" Alice asked.

"It's not my place to say."

As day soon turned into night Alice still saw no sign of Hatter, Cheshire only reassured her at dinner when he was gone; that he would tell her in the morning. Soon enough it was time for bed March was already fast asleep when Alice went to their room but neither hatter nor Cheshire were there. Alice crawled into bed reluctantly and starred at the beautiful ceiling that she believed would never become boring to look at, until sleep finally came.

Hatter sat outside on top of a hill gazing at the moon, it was full and blue with a tint of green to it. He held his necklace in his hands, his fingers rubbing over its design; a bronze colored fools cap with four bells. He sat alone in silent until Cheshire finally showed up.

"I knew I would have to tell her the truth about me someday. "Hatter said. "But I didn't think it would come so soon."

"Or perhaps you hoped you never would have had to." Cheshire replied.

"Do you remember that night? It was during the green moon festival, my village's most important celebration."

"Yes it's only held once every ten years when the green moon is present."

"Yeah, that's right, the greatest day for so many become the worst, I guess I just don't want to think to hard about it and all the horrible memories with it."

Hatter was in tears now; his heart didn't want to remember but still he did and was brought back to it all.

Hatter's earliest memory was of his parents, they were tall and thin with crazy hair, but despite there appearance inside something strong resonated within them. They gave this aura about them that people only felt around the white knights. Hatter and his parents lived in a small home and shared one bedroom but despite there poverty they were perhaps the happiest people in the entire village.

Hatter's parents were crazy, but in a good sort of way. They both had their own profound interests in things and took their love of it to the highest level. Hatter's mom loved tea; she loved it so much that she had her own little garden to grow tea, which as soon as the plants were ripe they were harvested immediately. She drank so much tea over the years she actually started to visibly shake almost all the time.

While his dad had an obsession with top hats, and shoes. Because his dad was relatively poor he could only afford one pair of shoes, and up too two new hats a year. But as time passed on his dad grew an expansive collection of Hats and when his son was born he named the boy after his love of hats. And that was when the young boy with the weirdest name in wonderland was born; Hatter.

The young boy's parents treated him like a king, and gave him all the love they had. They never pushed off their hobbies or personal interests on to him they gave him as much room to grow as possible. Soon enough though the young boy developed his parents' interests despite their intention of him having his own entirely. By the age of 6 he was drinking tea with his mom, and was trying on his dads top hats.

When Hatter was five he met a strange floating cat just outside the village he lived in. The cat called himself Cheshire and the two became best friends and played around all the time. Cheshire always looked after Hatter like a guardian.

One day when Hatter was trying on his dads top hats again he found that one of them was ruined completely and was barely scraps now. Cheshire brought Hatter a needle and some thread with the same color of the hat and taught him the basics of sewing. Hatter learned very quickly and loved repairing his dad's top hat.

When Hatters parents discovered his ability to sew and stitch anything they bought him some threads for his 6th birthday. Hatter used these threads to make his parents and himself matching gloves. The gloves were of the finest craft his parents ever had seen; their boy was a natural tailor.

Though being poor his parents couldn't afford the cloth for him to make things. Hatter's parents went to the villages tailor to see if they could have whatever cloth scraps he no longer could use for their boy. They never got much but Hatter made the most with what he had and would wait patiently for more scraps to stitch together then turn those into something else.

When Hatter turned seven his parent's bought him a small pile of good cloth, and told him that they wanted him to make himself the best outfit he could. When he asked what for they said it was for the village's most important celebration; the green moon festival. When Hatter asked them what it was they said they would explain after he finished his outfit, and that he had several months to prepare.

When his parents left Hatter alone Cheshire appeared. "Ohh I do love this particular festival I didn't think anyone held it anymore." Cheshire said.

"What is it?" Hatter asked.

Cheshire smiled his mischievous smile and thought about the question for a moment. Then he said, "Do you know what this village is named after?"

"No, but what does that have to do with the festival?"

"The village was named after the white knight who practically built it on his own. You do know who the white knights are don't you?"

Hatter only shook his head. Cheshire sighed then continued his story.

"The white knights are the people who were dedicated to order, justice, and peace, and maintained these things throughout all of wonderland for thousands of years. The strongest of them were paladins. These paladins had the ability to transform themselves into power beings of righteousness. Very few white knights ever became paladins.

You see what made the Paladins so popular were not their ideals, but rather what they accomplished together. Now Wonderland was not always the place it had been today, it used to be normal; there was no such thing as magic in this land and the people got along just fine without it. But then the Jabberwocky's came, and brought their strange magic to Wonderland transforming it and not for the better.

The Jabberwocky's magic changed the lands and made impossible things possible. Even the animals and plants were transformed by their magic, when the Jabberwocky's learned about what their magic was doing to the place very few of them cared. However there were those who did and they teamed up with a small group of mortals to help stop the Jabberwocky's madness in what became known as Wonderland. This group of mortals aided by the Jabberwockies became known as the first white knights.

Some of these white knights were influenced so much by the jabberwockies magic that it gave them the ability to transform into what they called paladins. A series of battles took place between the white knights and the Jabberwockies otherwise known as war. This war was long and endearing; the Jabberwockies even learned how to corrupt some of the white knights giving them the abilities of a paladin except there powers were darker, and sometimes stronger. Eventually the Jabberwockies were all defeated the last battle took place on a night where the moon was green; this night comes only once every ten years.

The Green moon festival is the celebration of that last battle with the Jabberwocky's and the peace from it. No matter where it's celebrated it's always so lively and the most fun you can ever have. I honestly thought that no one would celebrate it anymore after the queen of hearts took to power. It shall be a most memorable night for you."

Hatter got back to the cottage when everyone was asleep. It was late at night and he was tired. He silently crawled into bed and starred at the ceiling trying to get his mind somewhere else. Cheshire stayed with Hatter until he fell asleep like every night since they first met, then Cheshire left never sleeping always awake, going on some unknown adventures while everyone else was unconscious.

The next morning Hatter woke up and saw Alice sitting on her bed still in her pajamas. She was swinging her legs back and forth with her hands placed on the bed sideways. She starred at Hatter waiting patiently for him to wake up and get out of bed; to come over to her and tell his story.

Hatter Sat up in his bad, threw his feet over the side and slowly walked over to Alice. They both stayed completely silent as he took a seat next to her and sighed. After a long moment hatter finally said, "Alright it's time you learned my story."

As the days went by Hatter thought about what sort of design he would make his outfit. He drew up ideas on some old paper using whatever writing utensils he could find. Cheshire with his abilities to change shape and appearance entirely helped Hatter decide on the final product of his work.

A brown coat with a small mix of green blended into the fabric, and purple polyester inside, that reached down to hatters knees was his final product. He finished it on the day of the festival. Hatter went outside to excitedly show his parents the coat.

The streets were filled with people, and decorations of all kinds were placed on the shops, houses, or were propped up in the streets. Green lanterns hung from the roofs of every building lining up with every street giving the village a beautiful green glow. Hatter was so busy working on his outfit that he didn't even know any of this stuff had been set up and was able to view the completion of every ones hard and dedicated work to this festival.

It was the most wonderful thing that Hatter had ever seen in his life, everyone seemed so happy, and Hatter was so caught up in the village's euphoria that he almost forgot why he ran out of the house in the first place. Luckily for Hatter his parents anticipated something like this and found him rather quickly, as he showed them his new coat.

His parents took hatter around the village to play games, or enjoy the many shows performed in the streets as the hours passed away like seconds to him. Even Cheshire was enjoying things and on occasion would leave Hatter so he could play some games on his own or even take part in the performances. Everything was just so perfect that night until unannounced the cards marched through the streets slaughtering everyone in their path.

Hatter was too caught up in the festivities to notice the chaos happening around him. His parents noticed it almost right away, but Hatter was out of their sight playing games when it all started. They rushed to find their son amongst the chaos and blood shed.

When Hatter finally noticed what was happening around him it was too late. He saw a card soldier some distance from him knocking an arrow back in its bow, aimed at hatter; then it fired. The arrow was straight on course for Hatters head when out of nowhere his mother dived in front of him and blocked her son from the lethal arrow. It pierced her heart and went straight through her back, as she fell to the ground dead.

Another Card soldier came up at Hatter wielding a spear, and jabbed it at him. This time Hatters dad showed up the scene catching the spear around his arm but getting grazed in the side to do so. His dad turned around and shouted at him, "Run away!"

Hatter could only stand there horrified as his mom was dead and his dad fighting to protect him was quickly surrounded by other card soldiers. Eventually the cards overwhelmed him and one of their spears caught him in the back. He fell to his knees and gave one last look at Hatter; his eyes telling him to run away.

Finally Hatter found the strength to turn around and run for his life. Cheshire rejoined him moments later and started guiding him to wear he could hide. Hatter slipped through most of the streets unnoticed by the card soldiers who were too busy slaughtering his fellow villagers. When hatter turned another corner passing more buildings, Cheshire spotted the place he was looking for and said, "There it is."

Hatter picked up his pace, the road clear of any soldiers; soon to be hidden away safely when three card soldiers came running out from another street blocking his path. They almost didn't notice him but one of them did and stopped as the others backtracked to aid there fellow soldier. This time it was the end for him; Hatter thought.

He closed his eyes preparing for his impending doom when the sound of steel clashing forced him to open his eyes again. Hatter saw a Joker wielding two long knives fighting the card soldiers. Three against one the Joker was outnumbered but was holding off the cards. "Now is our chance." Cheshire said.

Then Hatter ran inside the house and hid, he couldn't see how the fight was going for the Joker, couldn't even hear, so he just sat in silent with Cheshire. Soon enough the sounds of Card soldiers running into the house caught Hatters attention. Cheshire then transformed himself into something Hatter couldn't see and covered him, telling him to be silent.

Whatever it was that Cheshire disguised himself as worked because when the card soldiers walked past Hatters hiding spot, they stopped only for a moment but didn't see him. They checked the entire house but when they found nothing they moved along. Cheshire kept the disguise up all night, as Hatter slept safe, until the morning came.

Hatter stopped telling Alice his story when he got to the end of the night of the green moon festival. After giving Hatter a few minutes Alice asked, "What happened next?"

"When I woke up," Hatter said. "The village was in total ruins and bodies lay dead in the streets. I called out to anyone who might still be alive but no one answered. As I walked around the village searching for any signs of survivors I heard a coughing noise and ran to it.

There, around the bodies of several Card soldiers was the Joker who saved my life. I ran to him quickly and he opened his eyes coughing out more blood. He told me he was relived to see id made it, and that the queen had come because of some rumor about a white knight living in the village.

At the time I didn't know what he was talking about, I knew nothing about the world outside my village, the queen, her kingdom, or the white knights. The man was dying and didn't have enough time to answer my questions about them."

Hatter then pulled out his necklace and held it in front of Alice. "Before the man died he gave me this necklace, told me that if I ever found his son to give it to him. I knew nothing about this man, in fact it was the first time we have ever met. But despite that he rushed to my aid and saved my life.

I wear this necklace all the time as a reminder of his bravery and strength, and as another reminder of the red queen's tyranny. From that day on I swore I would find a way to bring down the red queen and her house of cards. And that's when I met March Hair for the first time. Like you he found me in the ruins of that old village and gave me a home and love. He became like an uncle to me but still I was angry with the red queen and wanted her dead.

Three years after being with March I met his brother, the White Rabbit. They told me everything I know, and of his brother's true purpose for being under the queen's dominance, so he could spy on her. White Rabbit's ultimate goal though is to spark a rebellion amongst the lower class in the house of cards and cause a coupe.

My time here with March Hair changed me a little over the years. His natural kindness and good heart helped me out of my dark hole and slowly I cared less and less about revenge. Though I wouldn't search for the house of cards and kill the queen as I had originally intended all those years ago, if White Rabbit came to me and told me he was staging the coup I would have joined him in it in a heartbeat. But now, that you're here Alice, I'm not so sure.

I still want to kill the queen that hasn't changed, but you being around here its different. I mean its great living with you and our time together has been some of the best time of my life. You're a great friend Alice and I want us to live together for a while more, even if the queen lives as long as were all together I'm fine with that."

"So what you're saying is you like me?" Alice said teasingly.

Hatter didn't say anything or give any warning before he grabbed Alice and wrapped his arms around her tightly embracing her. Alice was in total shock for a moment but quickly settled into Hatters warm embrace. The two sat there holding each other tightly letting out all the pain and sadness from Hatter's story wash away.


	8. Chapter 7 The Chess Kingdom

Chapter 7: The Chess Kingdom

Alice was restless the night she went to bed after hearing Hatters story. She slept in Hatters bed that night both comforting each other keeping the haunting nightmares of his tale at bay. But despite how nice it was to sleep next to Hatter or cuddle with him something kept Alice from sleeping too long.

Instead of trying to go back to sleep Alice got out of bed to stretch her legs a little. She went outside for some cool refreshing air to see if that would help her. When she got outside she saw Cheshire sitting at the table drinking tea.

"You can't sleep after hearing Hatters tragic tale." Cheshire said.

"No, I just can't get over how something so horrible could happen to him. And he was so young too." Alice said.

"I think I know something that will help you take your mind off this."

"What is that?" Alice asked pulling up a seat next to Cheshire.

"To the north of Hatters village, the one you found yourself in when you first came here are some mountains. And beyond those mountains is the Chess kingdom; the former kingdom of the white knights. Even today it's one of the more rare and beautiful sights in wonderland. Why even just one trip there will take your mind off almost anything."

"That sounds great, it really does except those mountains are like half a day's walk at least plus there's getting through them. That could take days and I don't want to leave Hatter alone for that long."

"Normally yes but I happen to know a shortcut through the mountains that is a straight course through and takes less than an hour to walk through. And as an added bonus if you join me on traveling there tonight I will give you this once and a life time opportunity to ride on my back. It will take us two hours tops to get from right here to the very center of the chess kingdom. You can spend as long as you like there and when your ready to leave we will set off immediately I will even bring you your favorite snack in case you get hungry while were there."

Alice gave Cheshire a cynical look in response.

"Alice I promise you this is no joke or prank, I want us to spend some time together is all. And what better place than the chess kingdom, you can't sleep as it is and it's a one time offer only. So then what do you say?"

Alice looked up at the sky; the moon still had this tint of green to it. She thought about Cheshire's offer for a long while then sighed. "Alright, alright sure." She said. "But only if you promise to take me back right when I tell you too."

"I will even leave a note for Hatter and March to see." Cheshire said. Then he disappeared with a smile and reappeared a couple minutes later with a small sack. He handed the sack to Alice and told her it was her favorite snack inside. Then Cheshire transformed, growing six times his normal size and adding a lot of purple fur to his body.

Alice climbed onto Cheshire then used a long rectangular cloth to tie her bag with food around her waist. Then she double checked the bag to make sure it wouldn't fall off, and when she was content with it she grabbed a hold of Cheshire's fur and told him she was ready.

Cheshire took off so fast that Alice almost flew off his back. He moved faster than she had ever gone before at least that's how it felt. The wind was constantly threatening to throw her off Cheshire's back when he slowed down a bit, and shouted at her to lean herself forward more onto his back. She did so and put her chin on the back of Cheshire's neck then he picked up his speed again.

The landscape seemed to fly past her but she didn't dare take a long look anywhere but in front of her. Even then she was too afraid to stare ahead for too long and soon just nestled her face into Cheshire's fur waiting for him to slow down or tell her they were there. To pass the time and take her mind off of the speeding animal of doom she counted down from ten thousand.

When Alice reached 519 in her countdown Cheshire began to gradually slow down. And when she reached zero Cheshire was now at a sort of jogging pace. She lifted her head up and opened her eyes again when Cheshire moved so slow it felt like he was walking.

The first thing Alice noticed when she lifted her head was that Cheshire was indeed walking now; the next was the ruins of a massive white and grey stoned kingdom. The rubble was ancient looking and there was barley any ruins of castles or buildings left. However what did remain in tact were some of the most remarkable things Alice ever did see.

Giant white stone statues that represented chess pieces were scattered all around the expanse of the kingdom. There were Knights, Rooks, Bishops, and even some Pawns all around. They were beautiful to look at, but that wasn't the only thing that took Alice's breath away. Beneath her feet Cheshire stopped on a massive Chess board, each tile was about 5x5 feet. And at one end of the board was a beautiful white throne with a skeleton, wearing rusted white armor sitting in it, and a crown on top of its head.

Cheshire walked up to the throne and said, "The noble chess king struck down on his throne. Rumor has it a black knight disguised himself as a white knight came into the throne room and when the red queen launched her assault on the Kingdom the black knight killed the king before he could even stand."

And for the first time Alice had ever seen Cheshire looked truly sad; as if he was a personal friend of the king. When Cheshire noticed Alice was studying him he disappeared, then reappeared behind her looking as normal as ever. "You do know who the black knights are don't you?"

"They're the white knights who turned bad and started working for the queen of hearts correct?" Alice said.

"Precisely" Cheshire said.

The two of them spent most of the morning exploring around the kingdom, despite all its ruins it was still a beautiful place. After a while Alice grew hungry and took a break to eat. She opened up her sack and as Cheshire promised it was filled with her favorite foods. There was crème cheese cake, cinnamon bread, and some assorted meat slices.

After Alice was about half finished with her food Cheshire said, "Oh my I'm terribly sorry Alice but I forgot to pack some tea. Here I shall go fetch you some water instead." Then Cheshire gave Alice a mischievous grin before disappearing.

With a mouth full of cake Alice said, "Cheshire if this is another prank I swear you are going to pay dearly for it."

When Alice finished her food she wiped off her face and hands with the sack she used to carry her food in then called out to Cheshire who still hadn't returned yet. She called again for him but still no answer. Then she cursed to herself and shouted, "Cheshire whatever sort of game this is I'm not playing."

Alice sat in silence for a long while beginning to get worried when Cheshire finally came back holding a tin cup in his mouth with his head turned completely sideways. He placed the cup down next to Alice, which she could see was full of water and said, I'm sorry about that Alice finding this took a lot longer than id expected. And I can only whisk myself off to far away places instantly but I can't do so with any person or objects they would just fall to the ground, so I had to carefully carry this back to you."

Alice studied the tin cup then looked at Cheshire suspiciously. "The water is fresh from a nearby lake, and the cup is germ free I promise." He said.

Alice drank the water in three big gulps, it tasted very fresh indeed. Alice placed the cup down and began to fold up her sack when the sounds of clattering metal caught her attention. The sounds got louder as they came closer and Alice quickly spotted card soldiers all around; they quickly surrounded her and Cheshire.

This was the first time Alice saw the card soldiers, she believed they would be similar to the ones off the cartoon movie of it, but they were much scarier than she imagined up close. These soldiers were in the shapes of cards but they were clad in red armor, and had thin arms and legs that seemed to grow naturally. The Armor covered every part of their body; they had helmets and even shoulder spikes that looked very sharp.

Alice raised her hands above her head as the card soldiers pointed there sharp red spears at her. There were a couple dozen of them easy, too many for them to fight off and then run away, especially being surrounded. Alice turned to Cheshire and quickly said, "Use your teleporting trick and warn Hatter and March."

Then Alice was struck in the back of the head with the blunt end of a sword and was knocked unconscious. Cheshire didn't stay long enough to be attacked by the cards; he quickly vanished as they came after him. The card soldiers stuffed the unconscious Alice in a sack, tied it up then dragged her to a cage they had set up on a carriage. When they got her inside the cage and locked it, they signaled for the horse to start moving and as it did they marched behind, heading to the house of cards.

Cheshire returned to the Cottage to see Hatter and March at the table drinking tea and eating. When they saw Cheshire Hatter said, "There you are. You and Alice have been gone all morning without even a note. We were starting to become worried. Where is Alice anyways?"

"Well that's the thing," Cheshire said. "Me and Alice took a trip to the chess kingdom and we were ambushed by a group of card soldiers."

"What!?" Hatter shouted.

"She was knocked unconscious and they threw her in a carriage heading to the house of cards."

Hatter upset and angry stood up from his chair so fast that it flew to the ground several feet behind him. "Cheshire you get immediate word to white rabbit about this I'm going to need his help rescuing Alice." Hatter said storming into the cottage.

"Hatter hold up." March called to him. "We need to think about this rationally."

Hatter turned around and shouted back at March, "I'm going to the house of cards to rescue Alice. Either were coming back here together or I will die trying, but I refuse to lose anyone else to the red queen again!" Hatter was in tears now

Cheshire disappeared; teleporting to inform White Rabbit of everything as Hatter went into the cottage to prepare for his trip to the house of cards. March was right behind him as the two dressed themselves in a lightweight body armor that Hatter spent years slowly working on. He never knew when or if he would need it but now both him and March were glad he did because where they were going it might very well save their lives.

As the two finished dressing March pulled Hatter back to their room where he pulled out a box from under his bed. In it was a pair of long knives that were in excellent condition. He handed them to Hatter and said, "These belonged to the Joker whom saved your life. After Cheshire told me your full story I returned to the village to see if I could grab them in case something like this ever happened."

Hatter took the blades and starred at them for a while remembering how the Joker wielded them; like a true knight hidden inside a fool. Hatter then carefully put the blades through his belt on both sides of his hips like a sheath, and then they left the cottage.

When they came back outside Cheshire was waiting for them in a bigger and longer form of himself filled with hair. He kept his slender figure as much as he could to be less noticeable while still carrying both March and Hatter. When Hatter and March were both seated carefully on Cheshire's back he took off at incredibly speed. The three of them wind blasting their faces headed towards the most dangerous place in wonderland, determined to rescue their friend at all costs.

**END OF PART 1**


	9. Part 2 - Chapter 1 White Rabbit

Part 2 – The Mystery of Cheshire

Chapter 1: White Rabbit

Alice woke up in chains inside a large well decorated room, with red carpet that was incredibly smooth, and various tapestries that were hung around the room. There was a large blood red throne at the top of some small steps with a woman sitting on it her legs crossed. She wore a fluffy red dress that had a pink heart insignia engraved in the center of the chest. Her face was beautiful and her skin seemed very smooth, her hair had a dark orange tint to it and her eyes were dark.

The queen of hearts looked down at Alice from atop her throne; she looked intrigued by Alice's appearance and coldly starred her down. Alice quickly recognized the look the queen was giving her, it was judgment. She was judging Alice like a pet of hers had run away and been captured and returned to her.

Finally the queen spoke, "Tell me girl who are you and how did you escape my kingdom? Your dress is also of rather good quality I wish to know how you acquired it."

For a moment Alice thought about shouting at the queen telling her that she wasn't from her god forsaken kingdom. That she was from outside of it and lived in a free part of wonderland, but then she thought about March and Hatter. If the queen knew that others lived outside her kingdom she would probably go searching for them and if she found the cottage. Alice could not bear to think of what would happen if the queen of hearts found the cottage so she just stood there silent not answering the queen's questions.

The queen and Alice starred at each other in long silence until the queen grew bored and said, "Well then not talking. I suppose I shall just have to sweep those entire mountains to find out where your home is and who ever else dare mock me by dwelling in that chess kingdom ruins. In the mean time perhaps some time in the dungeon will loosen your tongue."

The queen waved her hand and some card soldiers grabbed Alice and dragged her away. When they arrived at the dungeon they opened the cell door and tossed Alice inside. Then they slammed it shut, locked it and marched away. The lighting in the dungeon was poor but Alice could see well enough to know that she was all alone in there.

Hatter, Cheshire, and March stood outside walls of the massive kingdom, also known as the house of cards. The walls were made of some red pinkish stuff that looked hard as rock but felt soft and rubbery. The only known way in or out was through the main gate but numerous card soldiers guarded it and fighting all of them would be suicide.

Instead their plan was to sneak in through some sort of secret passage hidden in the wall. White Rabbit was supposed to be showing them the way but he was no where to be found. Hatters paced back and forth frustrated at having to wait around.

"He's not here." Hatter said impatiently.

"These things take time I got word to him immediately but he said that it would be a while." Cheshire said. "We just have to stay put where he told us."

March sighed then said, "Hatter is right though this is taking longer than it should be for my brother. I mean what if some card soldiers spot us then what?"

"Then we kill them before they can bring reinforcements." Hatter replied.

Cheshire sighed but didn't say anything else; he just waited calmly for White Rabbit while Hatter continued pacing back and forth. Then just as everyone's patience was almost out the wall that they were all standing by started to make a fizzling sound and thin pink smoke began pouring out of it. Hatter and March starred at this strange development in the wall not sure what to make of it as the wall began to thin and soon a small hole came through. The wall continued to fizzle as more smoke was produced that disappeared quickly in the air and the wall was slowly eaten a way; the hole in it growing and growing.

The wall stopped disintegrating when it created an opening that was about 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide. The side of the opening in the wall was strangely smooth and not jagged at all. The wall itself looked to be only about 2 feet thick, but whatever that red pinkish stuff was that made it up it seemed incredibly strong.

Hatter and March starred at the opening for a minute looking inside they could see some grass surrounded by two tall hedge bushes that lead forward and turned to the right at the end. They could not see anything else though and for a moment believed that it was a possible trap; with card soldiers hidden on the side of the wall opening. And then a White rabbit who looked a lot like March Hair popped his head through the hole and said, "Well then are you lot coming or not? We are on a tight schedule and my absence as well as this newly found hole will not go unnoticed for too long."

March followed through the hole immediately after his brother and when he was on the other side of the wall he grabbed his brother and hugged him tightly. White Rabbit laughed a little then pushed his brother away. "Now, now there will be time for that later brother." White Rabbit said.

Cheshire and Hatter followed through the hole shortly after and Hatter studied White Rabbit for a moment. He looked no different from the first time he saw him; tall, smooth white hair, a Red silk vest with one chest pocket and two normal pockets near the bottoms, and small spectacles that sat close to his eyes but were not fully pushed up. The next thing Hatter noticed was that they were in a hedge maze, one that seemed rather thick.

"Well than White," Hatter said. "Where is Alice?"

White sighed and pushed his glasses up to his eyes then said, "She is in the dungeon. But I have never been there nor do I know its exact location"

"So then we will split up as soon as you help us into the castle."

"Despite the dangers yes that is the best way to go about it. We can cover more ground and will be harder to notice. There will be guards everywhere so Hatter you and Cheshire will walk invisibly through the castle searching the east side. While me and my brother will walk with safe passage through the west side."

"Well that is a wonderful plan." Cheshire said. "But how exactly is it going to work, especially the part about me and Hatter walking invisibly through the castle?"

"If March is with me the guards will not give us question or the staff, we will only have to avoid the higher ups; which I know every one of their routines and schedules so it should not be too much of an issue. And as for you and Hatter, well I finally figured out the truth about you Cheshire… And I'm sure an invisibility cloak for Hatter shouldn't be too difficult."

Cheshire's eyes turned into narrow slights and he started to growl a deep furious growl that neither March nor Hatter have ever heard coming from him before. His front paws grew a little bigger, and thicker as his claws started coming out and looked sharper than ever. Cheshire slowly hovered closer to White, still growling deep and low; raising his right paw as if to strike his enemy down in an instant.

March stepped between them but Cheshire only grabbed him by the throat and moved him aside; making sure his grip was enough to keep him from talking but not too much to cut off his air. When White moved to help his brother Cheshire grabbed his throat with his other paw in a fast and unseen movement. "Where did you learn about that?" Cheshire asked in a low growl; his eyes completely fixed on White Rabbit and now glowing an iridescent purple.

Struggling a bit for air White said, "I've been working with the queen for over 20 years now, I have gotten close enough to her to learn all her secrets. Only the queen and **she** know of your existence, obviously they know nothing of your whereabouts though."

"Perhaps your usefulness has run-"

"Cheshire enough, were here to find Alice." Hatter interrupted. "We can discuss this later when Alice is safe once more."

Then Hatter ran off and turned to the right going deeper into the maze as Cheshire slowly let go of White; and March but kept his gaze set on White. For a moment the two looked like they were going to go right back at each others throats when the sound of steel clashing caught their attention.

Another clash of steel and the sound of Hatter yelping quickly forced them to move. They ran fast as they could, turned the corner and saw a Hatter on the ground with his weapons several feet away from him and a card soldier wielding a sword pointing it at his neck. Except this card soldier was not in the form of a rectangle like all the others, he was humanoid and bigger than them.

White sprung into immediate action and without sound leaped from his spot and launched himself straight at the soldier. The gap between them was about ten feet but despite that White made the jump with incredible speed as he put his feet in front of him and with extreme force collided with the soldier. The soldier went flying to the ground and slid for a few feet more.

Before the soldier could figure out what had just happened, White had already grabbed one of Hatters swords and launched up into the air. Then he dived straight down on the soldier with the blade impaling his head. Hatter lay on the ground starring at White in amazement; as the whole thing happened in mere seconds.

White stood up and walked over to Hatter who was being helped up by March and said, "That was a Jack of hearts. They are the best swordsmen in the entire kingdom here; there are only ten of them in all." Then White looked back to the slain Jack soldier. "Well nine now."

"That was amazing, how did you do that?" Hatter asked.

"Being a spy is the most dangerous job there is. I spend most of my free time training, in both weapon and empty handed combat. And over the last 20 years I have learned many things; though no one else knows it I am also stronger than any single card soldier there is."

"So if you're so strong why haven't you slain the queen and freed Wonderland from her tyranny?"

"Because she is better than me in combat. I have seen her face three jacks at once and defeat them with barley a scratch on her. Even if I can manage a surprise attack on her it would have to be a one shot kill anything less and she would regain herself and I would be done for. Besides that opportunity has never presented itself she's extremely cautious.

Anyways we have wasted enough time babbling here. That soldier was a Jack and his presence will be missed within minutes so we have to move fast if were going to find Alice and escape."

White handed Hatter his blade and grabbed the other one from the ground and handed that to him as well. Hatter sheathed the blades and they set off. They ran swiftly and as quietly as they could, White precisely navigating them through the maze with forehand knowledge of its layout. From time to time they would stop and hide behind a corner as a group of cards would march by.

They continued like this for a while only White knew exactly how close they were to the castle itself, to the others every part of the maze looked exactly the same. Finally they came to a straight path in the maze that led directly into the castle. The grass and maze stopped at a large opening to the castle which then continued on as part of the castle itself; there were no doors just an opening in the wall.

"The queen's internal defenses are rather weak." Hatter said.

"There was never any need for a barricade from the maze it's a one way in one way out situation." White said. "You'll find the queen's defenses are much greater inside and around the castles perimeter. Guards will be swarming all around the castle areas when they find that Jack dead, were going to use that confusion and chaos to walk straight out of the main gate.

Since our original escape route has been jeopardized this is the best course of action, the guards at the gate shouldn't give me any trouble so if you find Alice before us then wait at the main gate. If me and March find Alice before you we will wait for you at the gate; and remember Cheshire, Hatter it is most imperative that you not be seen by any card soldiers while inside the castle"

Then the four of them stepped inside the castle together and split up into two in search of Alice. All of them more nervous than they have ever been before in their lives; because if they make even the slightest mistake here they will all be dead.


	10. Chapter 2 The House of Cards

Chapter 2: The House of Cards

Hatter stopped walking down the hall when he heard the sound of metal clanking; the sound of card soldiers walking. He threw his back to the wall and slid quietly to the corner to peak his head around. There was a group of five soldiers walking together, the one in the front of them had the number 10 in black on his right shoulder, and the others that walked side by side behind the one with the 10 Hatter could not see what their numbers were. As Hatter leaned back against the wall wondering what he should do Cheshire whispered in his ear, "You know that you're invisible right now, so as long as you don't make too much noise or bump into anyone you can walk around freely."

"So then what White Rabbit was talking about back there, you really can make me invisible?" Hatter replied quietly.

"Regardless you're going to find out in a moment, best we not speak any more until we find Alice."

Hatter was starting to question Cheshire's role in everything for the first time since they met when the sound of the soldier's metal clanking with each step brought him back to focus on his current situation. For a moment Hatter panicked, believing everyone but him was mad and when the guards turned the corner he would be spotted and would have to run away. Then Hatter thought back to the night the cards invaded his village when he hid inside the small building the card soldiers walked right past him as if he was invisible.

Hatter took a deep breath, exhaled then walked around the corner casually. He only starred forward as he walked past the card soldiers careful not to get to close to them. Hatter's heart was beating faster and faster with each step, he still believed everyone was mad and that he really wasn't invisible, but instead the card soldiers hadn't fully registered why this stranger was walking about casually inside the castle. He even believed that he had gone mad and any second the cards would turn and attack him, but before he even realized they turned the corner behind him and kept walking as if he wasn't there at all.

"Cheshire you and I are going to have a long conversation when we return home." Hatter said. And then Hater much less nervous than before, continued walking down the hall slowly searching the castle; invisible and free to go anywhere without trouble.

March and White strode throughout the castle walking with a sense of urgency but making sure not to go to fast as to gather unwanted attention. The occasional guard would glance at them but only briefly and none stopped them nor even questioned them. For a while they were making good progress checking around for the dungeon, corridor after corridor. White Rabbit wanted to ask a guard for directions to the dungeon but he was too afraid it would arouse a lot of suspicion on him and bring question to his brothers company with him. So in silence the two rabbits walked around searching for the dungeon, though White had lived there for 20 years he never explored around in places he was not required to go due to lack of necessity; now he was beginning to regret that.

White knew the castle was large but it was still frustrating for him to not know the place much better than he should. As White and March went down another long and empty corridor a group of card soldiers running slammed right into them, knocking them down; the soldiers kept running as if nothing happened. Before March could question what that was all about White said, "Someone has found the Jack dead, we must hasten our search time is running out."

Then the two stood up and started running down the next hall when a tall elegant woman ran in front of them going down the other hall connected to it and stopped when she saw the two of them. White caught by complete surprise and a little startled turned his head to signal for March how to act but his brother was one step ahead of him. As the queen of hearts walked down the hall heading towards them one hand on her blade March kneeled down to one knee and waited for her to approach. "Your highness," White said in his normal tone. "What a pleasant surprise I was just giving my brother here a tour of the castle." The lie was quick and filled with many holes but for the time it worked as the queen was to busy dealing with other more important matters.

The queen did not even look at March she just walked up to White and said, "Someone has managed to infiltrate my castle through the Maze and they have slain one of my Jack's. I think that it's the last of the white knights, there is a prisoner in the dungeon I intend to use her as bait because she is obviously what they came here for. I need you to go to the dungeon and escort her to my chambers, I will have my guards accompany you and show you where the dungeon is."

Then a few card soldiers came out from the hallway where the queen was in and walked over to them. The queen handed White a large black key then turned to walk away when he called out to her, "your majesty would it be alright if I went to my room and equipped my armor and weapon before setting out to handle this dangerous prisoner?"

The queen didn't even look back as she said, "Yes that is fine, but make sure to bring her to my chambers quickly before the intruders are found." Then the queen turned down the hall and was gone, White immediately set off towards his room to arm himself.

When White and March arrived at White's luxurious room the first thing White did was go to his wardrobe slid the clothes apart and opened a secret compartment behind it. There were over a dozen types of swords hanging on the secret wall, White pulled out a pair of one sided twin swords and then told his brother to find any sword he liked. March studied the various blades then pulled out a thin fencing sword. March studied the blade, it was completely sharp all around and could cut from any angle, it was made for speed and quick attacks; perfect for March's fencing style.

When White had put on his armor that was much better than his brother's, he spun the blades around a bit then went back to the wardrobe and grabbed the sheaths for him and his brother's weapons. Next White pulled his armor off the wall that was hanging above his bed; a chain mail vest with plating covering his torso and began to put it on. When White finished he went over to his brother and undid the buttons to his long cote. His brother was wearing similar armor except his was thinner and of lesser quality.

"Heh, I suppose it will do in a pinch but when we return to the cottage you are acquiring an upgrade." White said.

"Hatter made this for me its light and allows me to move about much more freely it may not be as fancy as your armor but Hatter made it and he did a damn well good job considering what little he had to work with." March said.

The two brothers then left the room, March not bothering to hide his armor as much this time. They kept their swords at their sides ready to use in a moments notice as the card soldiers led them to the dungeon.

Hatter and Cheshire searched throughout the castle and its various rooms, halls, and floors; invisible everywhere they went. The two walked in strained silence with tension between them slowly rising, when Hatter would ask a question in whisper Cheshire would not reply. Hatter knew it wasn't because they needed to keep silent all the time but for some reason Cheshire just was not talking to him, Hatter also knew it wasn't because Cheshire had to focus on keeping him invisible.

With each new area covered and absolutely no sign of Alice yet Hatter was becoming extremely frustrated and growing angry. The lack of communication with his friend only feeding his anger; until Hatter decided his friend had been ignoring him for too long and didn't seem to care at all if they found Alice or not. When Hatter came to another empty room in the castle he stopped and called out to Cheshire no longer whispering, "Cheshire it's time you start talking." He said.

"Keep your voice down were not alone." Cheshire replied.

"There is no one else here I made sure to check now I need you to tell me-"

"No, no, no." Cheshire said interrupting Hatter. He was still whispering but he was completely visible now. Cheshire's eyes darted around the room as he turned and flipped, and even sniffed the air searching for something. "Can't you sense it, there is someone else here, and they have been following us since we arrived here."

Hatter didn't notice at first but Cheshire was completely paranoid, and now he was more anxious than ever. "Cheshire what are you talking about?"

Cheshire didn't respond he only continued his strange movements all around the room when he suddenly stopped. Then he said, "It can't be, she's waking up. Responding to me I cannot stay, meet back up at the chess kingdom all will be explained there."

Then Cheshire disappeared leaving Hatter alone in the room, on his own in the house of cards; surrounded by enemies. Hatter stood there incredulously, Cheshire abandoned him; for the first time since they met his best friend abandoned him. For a long moment Hatter did nothing but stand there, until his thoughts went to Alice and he remembered what he was there for in the first place.

Hatter took a deep breath and continued his search ever more cautious then before, with no more invisibility he would have to avoid guards entirely. Hatter peeked his head out of the room checking to see if there was anyone around, when he saw no one he continued his search heading for stairs that would lead him further up; he already checked the one lower floor on the east side and had no luck it was time for him to check the upper ones now. Hatter got to the stairs and started running up them, he went past the first floor and continued to the second when he spotted a group of cards running towards the stairs. Hatter immediately turned around and almost tripped as he ran back down the stairs and turned into the corridor that would lead him back towards the first floor where the throne room was.

Hatter hid on the left side of the wall to the stairs and the corridor and lowered himself down incase the cards decided to entire the corridor through the stairs like him. As the sounds of the cards marching came closer and closer, hatter contemplated pulling out his knives and ambushing the cards. Hatter started to draw the blades when he remembered how badly that one Jack beat him, if they had another one of them with them Hatter would be doomed; so he slid the blades slowly back into there sheaths and waited. After a moment the card soldiers turned down the corridor and marched forward in unison, as Hatter saw there were no Jacks with them but there were more than he saw when he first spotted them and ran.

When the medium sized group of cards passed Hatter completely he let out a deep sigh, took a quick glance up the stairs then stood up and ran back up them. Hatter noticed for the first time that the cards were not running around in desperate search of the person responsible for killing the Jack soldier. Hatter thought either the queen didn't want to cause too much commotion to arouse suspicion amongst her workers or she knew that the intruders could not escape her and she need not sweat about it.

Then thinking about it as he continued making his way up the stairs Hatter finally realized something he should have a while ago; not only did he encounter much fewer guards inside the castle then he should have but there hasn't been any sign of a single worker for the queen at all. Something was very wrong with this picture but Hatter couldn't figure out why, instead of focusing on it he put it out of his head for the time being, focusing on finding Alice.


	11. Chapter 3 Escape

Chapter 3: Escape

March, and White kept their hands on their weapons waiting anxiously to arrive at the dungeon. The guards led them through a secret passage that White never heard of before; he knew there was a dungeon inside the castle but wondered why it needed to be hidden. They were led down some dimly lit stairs that spiraled downwards, and soon enough they emerged into what looked like a cave more than a dungeon. There were only two torches on the walls near one cell that contained a small blonde girl in a dirty dress. There was enough light to make out the cell and its single inhabitant but on the other side lead a passage completely black that looked like some sort of tunnel.

White was to busy starring down the tunnel beginning to question things when the sound of metal clashing brought him back to reality. He turned away from the tunnel in time to see his brother March dueling with the second soldier; the first lay dead a couple feet away from him. March parried and danced around the card soldier until he made an opening and in a flash March thrust his thin blade into the chest of the soldier and it too fell down dead.

March pulled out a key from the first slain soldier and unlocked the cell door with it, then pushed it open. Alice came running from her corner in the cell and wrapped her arms around March, sobbing quietly into his armor as the two whispered to each other. White let them have their moment of reunion as he continued looking down the dark and empty tunnel something pulling his attention back there. The more he stared the more he wanted to walk down there to see what that darkness was hiding from him when a massive pair of glowing purple eyes appeared from deep inside the darkness of the tunnel.

A low laugh sounded from the tunnel, it was feminine and White's eyes went wide with fear. He grabbed his brother and Alice by the hands and said, "We have to go right now!" he led them back up the stairs as they were starting to run instead of walk. The sound of the laughter reached March's and Alice's ears as they both asked, what it was. White continued leading them up as he said, "Something I thought was long extinct from this world. When I met Cheshire I had my suspicions but it took me years to figure it out and even then I thought he was the last. But now I understand it all, the missing pieces to the puzzle, that's how the queen came to power, and that's why she can rule so freely without a full army of cards anymore."

"Brother what are you talking about what's down there?" March asked.

"No time to explain now, we must find Hatter regroup and get as far away from here as possible."

"Wait, Hatter is here too?" Alice asked with joy.

"Of course he is, the moment he found out you were captured he set out to rescue you with or with out me; so I had Cheshire send word to my brother here and with his help we infiltrated the house of cards here and set out to rescue you. By the way Alice this is my brother White Rabbit."

"Yes, yes we can introduce our selves later right now we need to find Hatter and Cheshire and make our escape." White said as they emerged from the stairs and out of the secret passage.

The three made there way back to the throne room which was surprisingly empty and went to go into the east side of the castle when Hatter came running out from one of the halls that lead there. His face had a couple scratches and one eye was black all around, his cheeks were also a little yellow and he was weary as if he just came out of a bad fist fight. His hat was also gone and there was no sign of Cheshire, he still had his weapon sheaths but there were no weapons in them or in his hands.

"Hatter!" Alice shouted excitedly as soon as she saw him.

Hatter waved at them and smiled then shouted as he didn't slow down his pace, "Hi everyone we have run now."

"What happened to you boy and where is Cheshire?" White asked as Hatter soon passed them running towards the front entrance of the castle.

"No time, just run!" Hatter called back to them still running.

For a moment they all stared at him incredulously until they turned around and saw a massive group of card soldiers coming out from the hall he emerged from lead by two large black knights. None of them even hesitated for a moment to marvel that there were any knights left alive even if they were black ones; they just turned around and followed Hatter. White went down onto four legs and quickly ran after Hatter as March threw Alice onto his back and did the same. Alice hung on tight as March sped through the castles front doors and into the courtyard. They quickly caught up to Hatter and White and were about halfway through the courtyard when a group of card soldiers blocked off their only exit forward.

White leaped into action swiftly pulling out his swords and dueling with the card soldiers. There was ten of them in all but White managed to keep them at bay and even started to push them back when one of the black knights landed on a card soldier crushing it. White reflexively leaped back and away from the battle losing his moment as the card soldiers regrouped and the other black knight landed in front of White. The card soldiers went to advance when the Black knights held out their arms stopping them.

White studied the black knights for a long moment; they were about a foot taller than him humanoid and with massive upper bodies. The two had a dark exoskeleton like armor surrounding their entire bodies even their heads were covered in it. It looked to be like a special armor but White knew it really was a part of their bodies. "Well, well the infamous Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum." White said casually. "Honestly the queen would brag about you two all the time but no one has ever seen you, we all thought you two died of old age or something."

One of the black knights stepped up to White and went to punch him, White blocked it with his swords and it held for a moment. Then the black knight put more pressure on the blades and they snapped into two and White was forced to stumble back. As the knight lifted his leg to bring it down onto Whites head, while he was disoriented, Hatter tackled him out of the way and the Black knight's foot smashed into the ground creating a small crater. "Thanks." White replied as he stood back up.

Hatter, White, and the two black knights; Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, starred down each for a moment. Then the two knights simultaneously rushed White, and Hatter; White was quick enough to leap out of the way but Hatter was too drained and he took a powerful blow to the stomach. He was lifted into the air a couple feet and the black knight spun around and kicked hatter in the head sending him flying.

Hatter hit the ground hard and skid a few feet away from Alice and March. Both of them ran to Hatter and kneeled down to check if he was alright. He had a large cut on his head that was hidden by most of his hair and they couldn't see how bad it was. Hatter coughed out blood as Alice said, "Come on your going to be alright." She was in tears as March started crying with her but he was still calm and steady his eyes going back from Hatter to his brother who was retreating back to their side.

"Any back up plans?" White asked as he slowly stepped back to them his eyes never leaving the card soldiers movements or the black knights. Alice pulled Hatter's head into her lap and stroked his hair crying and shaking uncontrollably. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum stepped forward slowly approaching them; White, and March stood together to face them but they were easily knocked right back down.

As they struggled to stand back up one of the knights went to grab Alice when a white hand swiftly grabs the knight's wrist and begins to crush it in its grip. Hatter stands up still gripping the black knight's wrist. Alice stopped crying and starred at the transformed Hatter, he looked like an exact white shaded copy of the black knights except not as massive and about a foot shorter. "His true form has finally awakened," Cheshire said appearing from behind Alice.

Alice leaped back with surprise and turned to face Cheshire; who appeared as his old mischievous self. Alice got back to her feet as Cheshire floated up to keep eye level with her. Before she could say anything though a loud grunting sound coming from the black knight caught her attention. Hatter had snapped back the wrist of the knight he was holding then kicked him straight into a group card soldiers. The other Black knight rushed at Hatter in rage and Hatter leaped up and drop kicked him sending him flying forward into a larger group of card soldiers.

March and White used the opening Hatter created using the knight to dash past the cards that had fallen down and make their way out of the courtyard and into the city. Hatter turned around ran towards Alice and picked her up; he then followed the mess of confusion March and White made while running through he city ahead of him. Alice only starred at Hatters new form as he carried her away, he looked beautiful yet scary at the same time, his eyes were white and she could see nothing in them.

The trail that Hatter had followed led him to a stable where four dodo birds were pulled out; March and white sat on two of them leaving one for Alice, and Hatter. To Alice the dodo birds looked just like ostriches with shorter necks and long blue feathers. Hatter put Alice on one of them, handed her some reins and slapped the dodo bird's side as it started running forward. March and White ran ahead of her and guided her to the front gate, She had some issues controlling the dodo bird but quickly got the hang of it.

They all stopped at this massive wooden gate and two card soldiers started to approach them, spears in hand and ready to use. Hatter got off his dodo bird first and ran up to the guards as they jabbed the spears at him. He grabbed the spears right away and snapped them, and then he smacked the guards away and walked towards the gate and started punching it. For a moment Alice thought he had lost it until after several punches his hand broke through and he started ripping the gate apart literally with his bare hands.

When he made a hole in the gate large enough for them to fit through he walked back to his dodo bird as White called out to him, "were regrouping at the chess kingdom." Hatter said nothing only nodded at him and they set off through the hole in the gate, Hatter right behind them. The birds moved faster than even Cheshire did and Alice like she did when riding Cheshire kept her head low and followed White rabbit and March.

After they made great distance from the house of cards in the barren lands of Wonderland, riding for hours at incredible speeds; they came to a cross road and stopped. The sun was starting to set as they looked down the paths and white studied the roads to see which one would lead them to the chess kingdom. As White had made a decision and set off down one path March said, "Alright everyone its time to get off the dodo birds hurry now."

They all glanced at each other confused but did as March said. When they were off the birds March strode up to them still on his bird and gathered them together behind him and started walking down the other path. "What are you doing?" Hatter asked; who was back in his normal form and looking exhausted.

"The queen is going to track us by way of these dodo bird's tracks and I am going to lead her off from our real destination. Don't worry when I feel that I have taken the birds far enough away from the chess kingdom I will head over on foot leaving the queen to find four then useless dodo birds."

March then started to make the birds run as he called back to them, "Don't worry I will meet back up in a couple weeks tops. Besides she never caught me before I'm not going to let her now."

As they watched March run off to create a greatly needed diversion, a horrible feeling of unknown dread washed over them. All of them wanted to speak up and stop March but none of them could find the words and soon he was too far off for them to be heard. Alice grabbed Hatters hand and leaned herself against him for support. White started to cry a little as he watched his brother ride away; then he said, "That idiot is probably going to make himself lost out there and not find his way to the chess kingdom for at least a couple months. Then he is going to find his way there and act like it was nothing, meanwhile we all go without a good cup of tea for a long time."

They all starred at the empty road now, night was upon them and the horrible feeling they had just wouldn't go away. They set off to the chess kingdom on foot, the sky was filled with beautiful green moonlight but none of them noticed they only thought about March; all of them knew something horrible was going to happen to him but still they carried on because they had to.


	12. Chapter 4 The Tale of Cheshire

Chapter 4: The tale of Cheshire

As the sun was almost completely set and very little daylight remained, Hatter, White, and Alice saw a set of blankets and pillows, and even food laid out around a pile of wood. They all cautiously approached it when Hatter pointed out some writing on the ground that was made by an animal with massive claws; it spelled out, 'Curtsey of Cheshire.' Hatter walked up to the pile of wood and grabbed some spark stones placed right next to it and used them to start a fire.

Hatter then signaled for Alice and White to join him as he grabbed one third of the food that was just sitting on the blankets and started eating. As the sun set they all sat around the fire eating in silence. When Hatter finished his food he pulled up a pillow, rest his head on it and fell asleep in moments.

Alice grabbed one of the three blankets and covered him up with it than sat back down starring at Hatter while he slept. "He's completely exhausted" White said.

Alice kept her attention on Hatter and said, "So he's a white knight then?"

"Sort of, he's actually more accurately to say a Paladin. He is probably the first Paladin in existence to not be a white knight."

"I don't understand."

"What do you know about the white knights?"

Alice turned to look at White now and said, "Not much I'm afraid."

White sighed then said, ""Well the white knights were originally a group of people, human, animal or otherwise that stood against the Jabberwocky; the Jabberwocky whom ruled Wonderland freely as they wished even worse then the red queen does now. If the Jabberwocky wanted something, fruit, land, you name it they took it and killed anyone who objected; sometimes they would kill them just for being there.

However not all the Jabberwocky were like that, as the lands started to mutate from the Jabberwockies strange magic certain few came to the realization that they were destroying so many species and lives just so they could live freely. These few decided that what they were doing was the greatest crime in existence and perhaps indeed it was; anyways this small group of Jabberwocky grouped up and tried reasoning with their people to change things for the better but not many agreed most cared nothing of what happened to the lands inhabitants but some did join them.

Still despite gaining more allies of their own kind it was not enough for them to stop the others so they formed the order of the white knights in secret to raise an army to fight against their brothers and sisters. As the White knights grew, some of them began to mutate into powerful enhanced forms of themselves, due to the magic radiation of working closely with the Jabberwocky. These people that changed became known as Paladins and were worth one hundred normal white knights.

And then what happened next is that the Jabberwocky, with the aid of the white knights and paladins started a war with the other Jabberwocky. Not much is known about the war itself unfortunately. As for the white knights they trained rigorously to try and become paladins but few ever could. It is believed that some white knights were so frustrated and jealous of the paladins that they betrayed their people and order and went to the other Jabberwockies to be transformed into paladins themselves but instead what came out were the black knights."

"Wow, I mean no offense but I never knew Wonderland had such a history to it. I mean in the book it's just a dream from a girl with an incredible imagination but here in real life it's so much more."

"What do you mean Wonderland is different in a book, than it is in real life?"

"Well in my world there is this book about a girl with the same name as me and her adventures in wonderland. Except in the book everything is so much more different, Cheshire is in it, so are the Jabberwocky and the chess people but it's not nearly as detailed as this real wonderland. Actually Hatter, you and your brother are also in the book as well."

"Hmm, it's possible that the person who wrote this book was somehow able to glimpse into our world and draw inspiration from it for that story. Anyways I'm afraid as far as knowledge goes I am all dried up. I know nothing about the war with the Jabberwocky only that obviously it ended in our favor. As for the White knights, despite the queens best intentions of keeping people ignorant I was able to find out the truth about her coming to power and how she wiped them out to do so. I'm sure my brother has at least told you that much?"

"Hatter told me about that last part actually, he speaks very highly of you and your bravery you know."

"Yes well it will all be for nothing if we can't stop the red queen."

"By the way White, how do you know so much about the Jabberwocky and the white knights?"

White grinned a little and said, "Have you ever been to the library inside the cottage?"

Alice nodded her head in response.

"Well before I left to spy on the queen I would spend a great deal of time in there searching for any knowledge I might be able to use against her one day. I found nothing on her but on the top floor, as the books were older and older I found a series of massive books that were literally half of my size. They were ancient and dusty, weighed more than me at the time, and were written in a dozen languages, only one I could understand.

These ancient books actually take up the last couple shelves on that top floor of the library and from them is where I learned all that I have told you. Still I never was able to finish the entire series of them. I simply didn't have the time, my chance to infiltrate the house of cards undercover had come and I dared not miss it. You know its funny actually, on the days I wasn't learning as much as I could about the queen and her empire or thinking about March I was wondering what was in those last few books I could never read. When the queen is slain and Wonderland is free though the first thing I'm doing is running back to that cottage, flying up those stairs and finishing those books."

Alice started to laugh when White was finished talking, it was something about how serious he was that to her just seemed so funny. For a moment White only glared at her then he joined in laughing too. Struggling to speak through his laughter White said, "Well actually I guess it is hilarious now that I say it aloud. The first thing I do after freeing Wonderland is run home to read some ancient dusty books."

When the fire was down to low embers Alice settled under Hatters blanket and snuggled up next to him. White slept alone but did not mind it. As Alice closed her eyes and went to sleep her dreams were filled with utter strangeness.

Her first dream she was back at the cottage having tea outside except everyone was upside down floating in the air. March grabbed the tea kettle next to him and turned it right side up as the tea starting flowing up from it and into his upside down cup. The next dream she was on a massive chess board with Hatter and Cheshire except the squares were colored blue and green. Every time one of them stepped onto a new square they were launched over a hundred feet in the air and would float back down to the ground slowly like a feather.

Alice played around in her dream flying high into the air then falling back down safely again. Then March came hopping along, literally; as Alice waved at him while he approached. She landed on the same square that launched her up and remained on the ground watching March hop closer and closer to her.

Finally March arrived at the chess board and started hopping on the chess board coming towards Alice but none of the squares launched him up. When March was almost to Alice he suddenly changed direction from her and started hopping away again. Then March made it to the end of the board and when he hopped onto the last blue square he was launched high into the air; so high that Alice could no longer see him.

She starred at the sky waiting to see if March would ever come down, in a few moments he did but he was falling faster than she or the others did when they were launched into the air. Alice's heart began to race as March came closer and closer to the ground no sign of slowing down at all. And then March landed right in front of her the sounds of his bones snapping and breaking; Alice screamed and woke up from her nightmare back outside with White and, Hatter.

Hatter who was sitting with White talking rushed over to her and wrapped his arms around her, calming her down and telling her everything was alright. Her heart was racing fast for a while but soon enough she calmed down and then told Hatter and White about her dreams. The two of them looked grim for a minute after hearing about her dream but soon enough reassured her that it was nothing more than a nightmare and they would see March soon enough.

After they rolled up the blankets and scattered the ashes from the fire as best they could, Hatter, White, and Alice carrying the blankets and pillows under their arms continued walking down the road. They walked in silence and only stopped a couple times to rest their feet until finally they reached the ancient border lines that were home to the ancient ruins of the chess kingdom. A message was clawed into the ground just like before with the blankets and fire; this one read, 'Throne room.'

Cheshire floated in the air starring at the bones of the last Chess king; he sighed and said out loud, "I should have been by your side at all times my old friend. And now look at you, slain at your very throne and I can't even bury you properly. But don't worry someone is coming who can and then I will finally be able to make up for my past mistakes."

Alice, Hatter, and White arrived at the throne room and saw Cheshire floating in the air just a few feet from the king's skeleton. They called out to him but he did not answer, so they walked up to him and he seemed to be in some sort of trance. For a while they were all studying him silently until Cheshire suddenly spoke up starling them all, "I'm sorry how long have you all been here?"

"Not long," Hatter replied. "What happened to you, you were like hypnotized."

"I was just thinking back to things long since past." As Cheshire spoke he looked sad, sadder than any of them had ever seen him, like he was on the verge of tears.

Alice and Hatter lost all their anger they had been building up towards him and it was replaced with empathy. Whatever it was that made Cheshire sad it must have been terrible. Then White spoke up bringing all their attention back to the present situation, "Well than Cheshire it's time you started talking." He said.

"Yes of course but first I have a favor of all of you to ask." Cheshire said his voice still carrying its deep sorrow.

"Were not doing anything for you until-"

"My friend over there," Cheshire said interrupting White and pointing at the chess king. "I would like you to give him a proper burial; I have already dug the grave and can refill it. I just need you guys to carry him to it for me; it will only take a few minutes."

Alice starred at the king then back to Cheshire and said, "Why can you not do it yourself?"

Cheshire sighed, floated a little bit closer to the king and reach his paw out to touch him but as soon as he got within a couple feet of the king a strange force zapped him and prevented Cheshire from coming closer. "An ancient and powerful magic protects the throne from my kind, it's been weakened over the centuries and I can break through it but I fear damaging the king in the process."

White approached the throne, leaned close to it and sniffed it a little then said, "Serves you right."

Hatter shoved White aside and gently put his arms under the king's skeleton and lifted him from his throne, then nodded to Cheshire to lead the way. Cheshire leads them to a nice empty field not too far from the throne room where a rectangular hole has been dug into the ground. Its several feet deep and Hatter still holding the king's skeleton sits down on the ledge first then drops into the grave careful not to hit the king on the walls.

Then Hatter gently put the king down onto the ground and climbed out of the hole. As soon as Hatter was out the dirt around the grave began falling into it filling it up, pushed by an invisible force. The dirt filled the grave perfectly and gave no sign of any digging in the area, then violet flowers began to rise up from the king's grave, they sprouted all around it forming into a cross.

"He always did like the color purple." Cheshire said. "Please wait for me back at the throne I just need a minute to myself."

Everyone exchanged looks but did as he asked and returned to the throne room. A few minutes later Cheshire appeared in front of them all, he looked much less sad now but despite his best his sorrow still showed on his face. "Now then I shall tell you the truth about me and all the plans I set into motion after the fall of the chess king. I only ask you do not interrupt me while I am talking and hold all questions until after my story."

Cheshire disappeared right before he was about to start his story then came back moments later with a tray of food and cups of water. He knew everyone was impatient; so he did not stall any longer.

"Now then the first thing you need to know about me is I am a Jabberwocky; White here was able to figure it out a most impressive accomplishment I must say. Anyways though for a very long time I had believed I was the last of my kind until recently, when we invaded the house of cards.

I knew something was wrong the moment we stepped inside but I wasn't sure what it was, but as I used my powers to cloak Hatter I immediately sensed something was starring at me, responding to my magic. When I figured out what it was I had to run far away from the castle otherwise she would have been woken up and all of you would have been slaughtered for sure. The presence I detected was my sister, for a long time I had thought she had vanished from the whole of Wonderland but instead she was just hiding deep underground.

I presume that she used up so much of her magic before that she was forced to rest and had so little left that I was unable to sense her unless I was mere feet away from her. However over time and long rest she has recovered her strength but stayed in her hibernation waiting for my magic to resonate with hers and wake her up. She may have only acquired a sniff of me but it is enough to begin her waking process, which means time is not entirely on our sides like before.

Now then the next thing you need to know is that we Jabberwocky are born in pairs, had it been any other Jabberwocky then it would not have responded to my presence but this one is my sister, my twin Jabberwocky; we were born in a pair as all the other were. Me and her were born at the start of the great war with the Jabberwocky and the white knights. We were too young to fight so we sat on the sidelines in a manner of speaking and watched every battle that took place.

Cheshire and his sister Emurla watched from the skies as the last battle of the Great War was coming to an end. They knew that the Jabberwocky were done for this was just going to be their last stand. As the White knights and Paladins surrounded the last few Jabberwocky one of them started to run away but was chased by a single Paladin.

While Emurla was busy starring down at the last two Jabberwocky fighting, resolved to take down as many white knights with them as they could Cheshire was busy chasing the battle between the last Jabberwocky and the single paladin. Cheshire chased them far from the where the other two were now defeated and kept following them until finally they stopped at forest of jagged rocks that reached the skies. Cheshire lost sight of them for a few minutes when they entered the rock forest, but soon the rocks started collapsing as the Jabberwocky and the Paladin rammed each other into one of them shattering its base.

After throwing each other around some more, destroying half of the jagged rock forest the Jabberwocky and the Paladin stood facing one another, to Cheshire it almost looked like they were talking. Cheshire curious as ever at this started to come closer and closer to them despite the dangers of being noticed when the Jabberwocky opened its mouth again and lightning shot out aimed for the Paladin. The Paladin barley managed to dodge the attack by rolling to the side, and then ran for the Jabberwockies head.

Before the Jabberwocky could turn its head to attack again, the paladin raised his right leg up above his head and then brought it smashing down on the back of the Jabberwockies neck. The Jabberwocky gave out a loud cry and fell completely limp, it was dead now. Its body turned to stone and then fell apart; as Cheshire filled up with anger and sorrow for the death of the last warrior Jabberwocky he began to transform into a massive beast preparing to launch from the skies and attack the paladin; when his sister appeared out of nowhere and stopped him.

Cheshire lashed out at her but she dodged the attack and told him if he went he would be killed. Cheshire looked down and saw reinforcements swiftly running towards the Paladin, they were some distance away but it wouldn't take them to long. Cheshire sighed then looked up at the moon that was full and glowing green. Something about it calmed him down entirely and he and Emurla flew away from the battle.

Cheshire and Emurla wandered around alone for a while until one day Emurla decided she knew a good way to get revenge on the people of wonderland for killing off all the other Jabberwocky. Cheshire followed his sister to a small village filled with all sorts of people for a moment he didn't know what she was going to do then she transformed into a massive green tiger with glowing red eyes and started terrorizing the village. Cheshire watched the scene from above with disinterest; he neither aided his sister nor tried to stop her.

Emurla took Cheshire all around Wonderland searching for places with weak defenses for her to terrorize as her revenge for the war, but Cheshire had no interest in these people they were innocent. But Cheshire did want revenge so he set out to the chess kingdom while his sister played around terrorizing people. Cheshire knew who was responsible for the death of his people, the white knights so he set out to kill their king.

When he found the Chess kingdom he transformed into a wolf like creature and focused on turning invisible. Carefully Cheshire walked through the massive arch that was guarded by two white knights carrying spears. Cheshire knew his invisibility was working when they failed to notice him and he walked down the clean stone path that lead to the chess kingdom. As Cheshire walked throughout the chess kingdom invisible searching for the chess king he began to admire the beauty of the place, everything was so clean and well designed.

For a while Cheshire almost forgot why he had come to the chess kingdom in the first place when he accidentally bumped into someone and saw that it was a white knight patrolling the streets. Cheshire swiftly ran way careful not to make the same mistake and focused entirely on finding the king. Eventually Cheshire found the throne room by following the areas with the most guards; and to Cheshire's great surprise the throne room was basically a massive white and grayish room with an even count of black and white tiles on the floor.

There were some columns on the sides of the walls to support the ceiling and two sets of staircases going up on the sides in the very center of the room. The floor that was made out of black and white tiles was filled with various large strange looking statues of some sorts that Cheshire did not know what they were; in fact the only piece Cheshire did recognize looked like a horse from its upper body and head. As people dressed in nice clothing moved the pieces around Cheshire studied it and realized it was some type of war game.

While Cheshire was busy studying the game some one unknowingly walked into him and fell. Cheshire was so caught by surprise that he lost his concentration on his invisibility and the guards throughout the room charged at him. Cheshire fought off the basic guards easily but then some of them transformed into paladins and easily subdued him. The more Cheshire wrestled control from them the harder they pushed him down and the more it hurt, Cheshire was starting to regain control though as he began growing larger and the paladins went to hit him until the king shouted "Halt!"

The king's voice boomed throughout the throne room and was so powerful that everyone in the room completely stopped everything they were doing and looked at him, even Cheshire and the paladins. As the king stood from his throne and approached Cheshire he noticed that the king was a young man, the youngest in the room in fact. The king stopped a few feet away from Cheshire gave him a sympathetic look and then told the guards to take him to the dungeon.

Cheshire struggled as best he could but was unable to escape from the paladins grip as they took him to a dark and empty area filled with metal bars that formed a type of holing area. They took Cheshire to a corner far away from the holding cells and threw him into it. Cheshire hit the wall hard but recovered and went to run but when he got a few feet from the wall he hit an invisible force field and was stopped. Cheshire tried going to the ceiling but the force field reached up there as well.

As the Paladins left Cheshire tried everything he could to break through the barrier but only exhausted himself and gave up. He sat in silence for a while, alone in a dimly lit dungeon with nothing to do. Time passed unknowingly for Cheshire and for a while he thought that they would leave him in there to rot until the king came down to visit him. Cheshire growled as he approached and said, "Leave me alone."

The king stopped and without a word did as Cheshire said leaving him alone. The king returned again several days later and Cheshire told him to leave again and the king left in silence just like before. Soon they fell into a routine that lasted months where the king would come and Cheshire would tell him to leave and he would do so in silence without saying a thing.

One day the king returned after some time and before Cheshire could speak he said, "I suppose you want me to leave again?"

The king took Cheshire by complete surprise and Cheshire decided he was tired of playing this game so he said nothing and let the king approach him. The two sat in silence for a long while until the king finally said, "I am deeply sorry for your loss of your people. I wasn't around when the war started but ultimately I was the one who ended it, it was by my hands the last Jabberwocky was slain, until you came along."

Cheshire was so angry by the king's story that he shouted for him to leave before he could finish his story. The young king sighed and did so apologizing to Cheshire on his way out. Cheshire sat alone again wondering if the king would ever return but much to his surprise the king did return much sooner then he ever had before. The king returned carrying a tray with 3 different tea pots and several cups. He poured 2 cups of tea from each pot, one for Cheshire and one for himself, and then passed the cups to Cheshire through the invisible force field one at a time. The king told Cheshire what cup contained which type of tea and started to drink his won tea. The first couple cups of tea Cheshire tried he hated then the 3rd one he thought was decent.

The king returned everyday with new teas for Cheshire to try, and they would sit around drinking tea and talking about different things. A lot of time had gone by as the king would visit Cheshire everyday bringing him new teas to try, until after over one hundred different types of tea Cheshire found the one that was right for him; Moon berry tea. The king had little taste for it but when he discovered how much Cheshire enjoyed it he made sure that plenty of it was around and gave him as much as he wanted to drink.

As days turned into weeks Cheshire and the Chess king drinking tea every day talking became good friends without even realizing it. The king was older now looked more like an adult and soon trusted Cheshire enough to let him go. As soon as Cheshire was free on instinct he ran far away outside and soared high up into the air, he would have continued going too until he looked down at the chess kingdom below him. It was a sight to behold just as beautiful from the sky as it was from on the ground. Cheshire stayed in the air admiring the kingdom until night had fallen, and Cheshire made a decision he never thought would be possible before, he returned to the chess kingdom.

Cheshire took the form of a nearby cat he saw and started wondering around inside the castle looking for his friend the king. As Cheshire searched around the castle he got strange looks from every one he passed and noticed that people were starring at him, but he did not know why. It wasn't long until the king found him and said, "You have got the basic idea of a cat down but you forgot the fur and the eyes, and the fact that they are not purple." Then the King placed a mirror in front of Cheshire and he was shocked to see how wrong he had gotten it; the form Cheshire had then is the same one that he has kept for so many years, that of cat with purple skin and no fur, and glowing purple eyes.

The king laughed a little as Cheshire focused on changing his appearance again and said, "My friend keep that look I rather like it." Then he led him up to his room and while they waited for a servant to bring some tea the king said. "I suppose you have not really had much practice at shape shifting have you?"

Cheshire told him he never really had much need of it before. The king scratched his neatly trimmed brown beard and said, "I was not sure if I would ever see you again my friend." Cheshire smiled at him and said, "It had crossed my mind to never return but where else would I find that delicious tea." The king then laughed a good whole hearty laugh and soon Cheshire joined him in it.

The king was a full grown man now and as him and Cheshire spent full days and nights together they're friendship grew ever stronger. Cheshire who never slept always stayed by his friends side while he rested, trying out new shape shifting ideas silently in front of a mirror. One morning Cheshire was practicing disappearing parts of his body for the fun of it when the king woke up and said, "You know for the all this time we have known each other I have never known your name; mine is Aaron."

"And mine is Cheshire." Cheshire replied.

Cheshire soon learned that Aaron had a nasty habit of pulling pranks on people, even Cheshire. When Cheshire learned how to do pranks of his own he and Aaron would start pulling pranks on each other or team up to pranks the citizens of the kingdom randomly.

One day Aaron told Cheshire he wanted to live in a small home that was several times larger on the inside than it was on the outside, somewhere where he could get lost in just by trying to find his own bedroom. After hearing that Cheshire set out so build him a home just like that, he would leave every night when Aaron slept and begin construction on what is now the cottage that later became home to March Hair and White Rabbit. Over many years Cheshire built it, slowly adding more to it waiting until the day it was just perfect to show it to his friend.

But as the years went by King Aaron grew older and older and Cheshire being a timeless being knew nothing about ageing. It was only when he saw his friend had grown white hair and his eyes slowly losing the color to them when Cheshire realized what was happening and Aaron had to explain to him that he was simply growing old. Cheshire feared he would never finish the cottage in time to show Aaron it but he never gave up until the day the queen of hearts attacked the chess kingdom.

She came out of nowhere and had a swift and powerful army of strange card shaped soldiers with armor on. Cheshire could smell the magic on them; they were the work of his sister Emurla. As Cheshire used his magic to blast them away to protect the kingdom his sister appeared, she was angry that he destroyed her "pets" and felt betrayed that he was siding with the white knights; the two fought for a while after that until the queens army retreated and so did his sister. Cheshire wanted to chase after her but then he remembered his friend Aaron, the chess king.

Cheshire searched for him until he finally found him, he was uninjured but looked tired, Cheshire pleaded with Aaron to go with him to the cottage and leave the war to him and the others but he said no that he had a duty as king. As the card wars waged on it took its toll on Aaron, he could not battle like he used to; only command his troops and advise his generals. But the red queen's army was too large and she even had the aid of thousands of black knights.

As the battles raged on Aarons heart grew heavy with another war, as did Cheshire's from fighting off his sister to protect the white knights. His sister was weakened from using her magic to make the card soldiers and the black knights but still she was a challenge for him. Cheshire did not want to harm her but some battles he almost killed her, and as the war waged on winning out in the queens favor he set out to find and kill the queen and end the war once and for all; that was the biggest mistake of his life.

After the battle that had almost killed his sister Cheshire thought she disappeared somewhere far away and he spent the rest of his time with the king aiding him as greatly as he could never leaving his side until he saw that if the war was not over soon Aaron would be too weighed down from it and die, so despite knowing something was wrong Cheshire searched for the red queen to kill her. He finally found her hidden away in her castle that was previously shrouded by his sister's magic.

As Cheshire went to strike her down he could sense his friend was in immediate danger, he teleported back to the castle right away deciding to deal with the queen later and that's when he saw a black knight transformed into a dark paladin impaling the king with his hand. The king could not even get up from the throne fast enough and fell back on it bleeding from a lethal wound. In his rage Cheshire blasted the dark paladin with a powerful force of lightning, completely destroying him and leaving nothing left but ashes.

Cheshire went to help his friend but found out about the force field around the throne prevented him from even touching the king, tears wept down his face as he did everything he could to get to his dying friend but was forever stopped only a few feet away from him. He whispered something to Cheshire in his dying words but Cheshire could not hear him. When he finally turned away from his greatest friend he could sense nothing but card soldiers and black knights all around there were no survivors of the white knights, and in his great rage he used his awesome powers to destroy every card soldier and black knight in the entire chess kingdom, unfortunately Cheshire also destroyed the kingdom itself.

Very few things remained of the chess kingdom after Cheshire's rampage, some statues and the throne mostly. Afterwards he set out to hunt down and destroy every last Black knight and dark paladin that he could find. It took him years but Cheshire finally killed them all, afterwards Cheshire went in search of his sister in order to finish her off as well. Cheshire found no trace of his sister anywhere in Wonderland but something called him to another world and he answered that call thinking it was his sister; that is how Cheshire found himself in Alice's world.

Cheshire never found his sister again until recently, and his traveling between worlds exhausted nearly the rest his my power so he knew he would have to wait until he could kill the queen and avenge his friend so Cheshire decided to settle down and that was how he came across Hatter after many years of wandering around aimlessly, Hatter who resonated with the energy of the paladins and reminded him so much of his friend king Aaron; so Cheshire stayed with Hatter and developed a new friendship with the young boy. However something kept calling him back Alice's world and after several years he decided to return and when he found nothing again Cheshire decided to pull one last prank before leaving for good. And Alice's home was simply the closest to his portal to Wonderland; as well as she was the only one who woke up from him calling her.

Cheshire lured her into the woods to make her run around chasing him a bit but somehow she managed to find her way to the portal and when he appeared behind her, she was so spooked that she accidentally fell down into it. Cheshire dived down the portal after her to catch her but he wasn't fast enough and she fell somewhere down in Wonderland. It took Cheshire some time to find her but when he did he didn't know how to approach her or tell her that he would be unable to send her home for many years; so Cheshire sent March down to the village where she was to find something he made up so that March would find Alice and bring her safely to the cottage to live with them.


	13. Chapter 5 To Become Heroes

Chapter 5: To Become Heroes

When Cheshire finished his tale Alice took off her shoe and threw it at him. He was caught off guard and the first one hit him right in the face, but he was prepared when she threw the other and easily dodged it. She then ran after him to punch him but he simply floated high above the air out of her reach. "You little cretin," She said furiously. "You knew this whole time how to send me home and you never did, or even told me."

Cheshire was about to say something when Hater handed Alice her shoes back and said, "So now that you know how to go home your just going to abandon us is that it?"

Alice grabbed her shoes from Hatter and said, "Hatter that's not what I-"

"You know what its fine," Hatter said interrupting her. "We don't need you to slay the queen you would just get in our way so why don't you run on home and write us off like we were nothing more than a dream; or some characters in your favorite book. Yeah White told me about that, how in your world were just characters in your favorite story."

Hatter was on the verge of tears as turned away from Alice transformed into his Paladin form and quickly ran away. Alice called out to him but he did not respond; only continued running. Alice put on her shoes hastily and started to run after him when White grabbed her by the arm and stopped her, saying, "He just needs some alone time to think."

Alice pushed White away and proceeded to chase after Hatter but she quickly lost sight of him. She looked around everywhere in the ruins of the chess kingdom but found no sign of him and reluctantly had to give up knowing that he did not want to be found. Cheshire appeared to her shortly afterwards and said, "White is heading back to the cottage; I suggest you do the same. I will inform Hatter of your whereabouts as soon as he is ready to return."

Alice sighed but headed in the direction of the cottage walking alone. Cheshire offered her a ride but she declined it even if it was a day's walk for her.

March led the dodo birds on the same road nonstop until nightfall where he made camp far away from the road, with no fire, food or shelter. He went in search of water on his own leaving the dodo birds behind. After a while he found a nearby small stream of fresh water running off from the mountains. He then returned to the dodo birds and led them to the water to drink.

When the birds and March had their fill of water March gathered them back together in a huddled group and rested with them. He awoke at the break of dawn, stomach empty and still tired. He searched around the area until he found some berry bushes that he recognized would be safe for eating and led the birds t them as they all started eating every berry in sight from the bushes.

March would have searched for more food but when he heard the sound of horses galloping not too far away he hopped up on a dodo bird, rounded the rest behind him and set off again. He started out fast but gradually slowed down so he wouldn't exhaust the birds, and made it a good distance more when the road abruptly ended at a massive rock wall.

March knew nothing about where either path from the wall would lead. He sat there judging both paths by what he could see when the sounds of horses galloping caught his attention. March gave each path one last look then went to the left unknowing of what lay ahead.

When Alice finally returned to the cottage a day and a half later she was exhausted and only wanted to sleep. She went to her room, changed into her pajamas then crawled into bed and slept, absent of dreams of any kind. She woke up the next morning starving and went out to the table partially expecting to see every one there like normal but it was just her and an empty table, not even tea cups were on it today.

Alice sighed then sent back into the cottage to grab some food and water. She ate outside alone until half way through her meal Hatter returned. Alice ran up to him and hugged him tightly and he hugged her back. Then the two broke their embrace and Hatter said, "Alice I'm sorry for yesterday. I had some time to think and I realized I was being completely selfish. If you want to return home when all of this is over or stay here in Wonderland with us it's your decision, and I will support it."

Alice crossed her arms, gave Hatter a smug look and then said, "You jerk as if I would abandon you and March just like that. Cheshire maybe but not you guys." Hatters face brightened and he smiled after Alice finished speaking. He wrapped his arms around her again and spun her around a few times before putting her feat back on the ground.

"You know Cheshire is going to have to take us to visit my home and family one of these days so I can let them know I'm fine, and to introduce you to them all."

"That would be nice. But first I must go grab some food before I kill over, I haven't eaten since yesterday."

Then Hatter ran inside as Alice took her seat at the table again and slowly finished her food. White Rabbit, and Cheshire returned shortly afterwards taking different spots at the table. Cheshire disappeared to grab White some food from inside the cottage and Alice sat in silent eating while White sat patiently waiting. Hatter returned before Cheshire did with his own plate of food and some water, and he took a seat next to Alice.

Cheshire returned with a tray of food for White and sat at the end of the table in prefect silence with his eyes closed waiting for every to finish eating. After they were all done Cheshire opened his eyes and said, "Now that everyone has had their bellies filled I would like to talk to all of you about my plan to slay the queen and restore Wonderland to its former glory."

Alice, White, and Hatter all gave their complete attention to Cheshire listening to what he had to say. "I'm sure I already know the answer to this but White, and Hatter I would like to ask the both of you to aid me in this task of slaying the queen."

Neither White nor Hatter hesitated when they said, "Yes we will help you."

"Hey what about me?" Alice asked, mad that she was left out.

Before Cheshire could respond Hatter quickly turned to her and said, "There's no way we are taking you with us." Alice was about to speak up but Hatter stopped her and continued talking. "Besides what help would you really be, you can't fight you would only get in our way its better if you just-"

"I can train her." White said interrupting Hatter. "I can train Alice to sword fight and she can help us fight the queen."

Hatter glared at White then said to him, "I'm not going to let Alice risk her life, no matter how much training you give her."

"White is right Hatter, Alice needs to be trained, and so do you for that matter." Cheshire said cutting into the conversation.

"Hey now don't I have a say in any of this." Alice said to the group.

Both Hatter and White said, "No" to her simultaneously and Alice was going to continue arguing when Cheshire stepped in and said, "None of you have a choice in this matter."

They all stopped looking at each other and turned their attention once again to Cheshire. "Now if you will all shut up and listen I can finish. Hatter, Alice, despite how much I hate to put either of you in danger I'm going to need both of you to play your roles if were going to accomplish this mission. White will have to train Alice as best he can and as soon as we can because were on a time limit here.

My sister will be waking up in two months tops and I'm going to need all that time I can get to train Hatter. Right now I'm running on the assumption that March will not make it back to us in time, so White is going to need Alice's help fighting the queen he cannot take her alone and I will be entirely focused fighting my sister to aid him at all.

Now Hatter I'm afraid you're going to hate this but you will not be with Alice to protect her. You're going to have to fight the dark paladins on your own. If those two are with the queen then they will have the advantage, Alice and White can take the queen but those dark paladins will tear either of them apart and you know you cannot keep both of them completely under your control.

Hatter you're going to have to find those twins and defeat them all on your own, Alice and White will be relying on you. Because if you can't defeat them then even if Alice and White kill the queen and walk away without a scratch they will not be able to fight even one of the dark paladins."

Hatter grit his teeth and clenched his fist as he thought about it, Cheshire was right but he absolutely hated the idea of letting Alice fight the queen even with White by her side. When Hatter calmed down Cheshire continued talking.

"Do not fret too much though I have the best armor and weapons in Wonderland for you two. Inside the cottage behind the room I always keep locked is a small armory from the chess kingdom I salvaged in case I would ever need it. It is made by Jabberwocky and I can resize it to fit Alice and White perfectly.

I will give you all today to relax and spend as much time together as you can because starting tomorrow we must all begin training. Alice, White meet me in the locked room inside the cottage when you're ready to be fitted and find your weapons, the door will be open."

Then Cheshire disappeared leaving them alone to talk. Hatter went to say something but Alice spoke up first, "I know what you're going to say but if we all train hard enough then we can do this and all of us will make it out alive because this table is too big to have even one of us missing.

Now then we all need a bathe so how about you go grab some soap and swimming suits for me and you and then head on down to the river ahead of us. I will be behind you shortly and we can spend the day swimming and having fun okay."

Then Alice smiled at Hatter stood up and walked with White into the cottage. Hatter watched her go then slammed his fist into the table angry. Reluctantly Hatter did as Alice said, gathered some soap, their bathing suits, and headed out to the river.

Alice and White arrived at the room and saw inside that it was filled with dozens of weapons placed on racks and four white and shiny full body armors, the only parts that were missing were the helmets. As Alice and White admired the armors and weapons Cheshire said, "Put on any suit of armor and I will shrink it down to fit you perfectly, then as for the weapons that will be up to White's decision."

Alice and White pulled out two of the armors at random and once they were on they began rapidly shrinking and stopped as soon as they were tight as a glove. Alice was surprised to see how light they felt on her, she thought they would weigh her down at least 100 more pounds but this armor only added what felt like an extra 20 to her.

"This armor is amazing." White said "It's incredibly light but feels impenetrable."

"There's not much that can penetrate it no, but the queen does have the same armor and weapon of Jabberwocky forge does she not?" Cheshire replied.

"Yes unfortunately she does."

"Than her weapon if she gets a good attack on you will pierce the armor so keep that in mind, however your weapons shall be able to do the same."

"Alice I want you to pick up every weapon here, swing them around a few times each then take the one you were most comfortable with." White said.

Alice was still adjusting to moving around with her armor on but she did as White said, and tried out every weapon. All of the weapons felt awkward to her considering she never held any of them before in her life, but eventually she found a pair of one sided twin swords. White smiled when he saw her choose them and said, "My exact same weapon choice, training you might not be as difficult as I thought."

Hatter arrived at the river alone and started to bathe; then he put on his trunks left the soap and Alice's bathing suit lying around for her and walked down to the calmer part of the river to wait. After what felt like a few hours Hatter saw Alice jogging towards him in her bathing suit. Hatter stated jogging as well to meet her half way.

Alice and Hatter spend the entire day together just the two of them; swimming, laughing, just having fun. Both of them wished that the day wouldn't end, that tomorrow would not come but the sun began to set and the two had to head back to the cottage. They held hands on their way back home, and walked at a slow casual rate even as the sun set and the night gave a cool breeze.

The two of them returned to an empty table with a tray of food left out for them, the food was cold but they were t hungry to care. After they finished eating they retired to their room where Alice slept in Hatters bed with him again. They cuddled up with each other and stared at the ceiling enjoying its beautiful painting until finally they fell asleep.

The next morning Alice and Hatter took their time getting out of bed and when they arrived outside White and Cheshire were waiting for them at the table. "Now that you two are finally awake you can eat breakfast then after some time we will begin." White said.

Alice and Hatter sat next to each other at the table eating, while White and Cheshire sat in complete silence. When Hatter and Alice were finished eating Cheshire opened his eyes which had been closed since the two arrived outside and said, "Now then, while you two were sleeping in me and White were talking about the best way we could train you two. And we decided that the best way would be to separately train you in distant locations; this way you're not distracted by each others company."

Hater stood up from his chair and approached Cheshire at the end of the table and said, "Now how to you suppose your going to separate us, huh?"

Cheshire gave his old mischievous smile to Hatter then without warning transformed. Purple smoke began appearing out of nowhere from Cheshire as he swiftly grew bigger and bigger and his body transformed more into a lizard. Cheshire stopped growing when he resembled a dragon with wings that had three razor sharp claws at the tips. His neck stretched several feet from his body and his head had webbings around tendrils reaching to the back of his neck. Cheshire's hind legs were covered with spiked all around them and his tail had similar spiky armor that looked like it would cut your finger off just from touching it; his skin had also turned from purple to a dark green and grey tinted color all around.

For the first time in Hatters life, he was truly frightened of Cheshire; this form was massive and could eat him in one bite. Hatter leaped back and transformed into his paladin form as Cheshire said, "I had hoped you would say something like that."

Then faster than anyone could even blink Cheshire lunged at Hatter wrapped his three claws all around Hatters body and then threw him into the air aimed for above the mountains. Alice creamed with terror and shrieked, "Hatter!" Cheshire began to chuckle then said, "Do not worry Alice Paladins can survive much worse than that; which is what I have in store for him." Then Cheshire began slowly disappearing in a strange smoke the same color as his skin, he laughed mischievously as his whole body slowly disappeared in the smoke and then was silent when it faded and he was gone entirely.

Alice still terrified set out towards the mountains where Hatter was tossed when White suddenly jumped in front of her kicked her to the ground. "Do not worry, Cheshire won't kill Hatter he will only push him to his extreme limits during training as I will to you. Now then go grab our armor and weapons and suit yourself up we will begin training shortly as soon as your food has had time to digest."

Alice glared at White with anger as she clenched her fists. For a moment she considered fighting him right now but knew she couldn't take him and reluctantly did as he said. When she got to where their armor and weapons were she put her armor on grabbed her weapons, then grabbed White's armor and weapons as well and hauled them outside. She threw down Whites armor and weapons in front of his feet when she came outside then he said, "Good now give me a minute to put on my armor and we will begin walking."

"Walking where?" Alice asked.

"Just to a more open area only about five minutes away so we don't destroy the table while we train."

After White was in his armor he grabbed his swords and the two of them began to walk away from the cottage. As White had said it was a short walk way from the cottage and into a barren but emptier area. Alice took a seat in the dirt and waited in silence for what felt like hours to her when White finally said they would begin. Alice went to pick her swords back up but white told her to leave them for a few minutes. Then the two started to stretch as Alice followed his instructions on how to stretch properly. Finally when they were all done stretching Alice and White picked up their words and began to train.

Hatter was spiraling through the air uncontrollably as he soared over the mountains and quickly lost altitude heading for the Chess kingdom. Hatter was unable to straighten himself out at all when he hit the ground with his back and continued to pummel to ground with his body like a rag doll. Eventually he stopped bouncing around the ground and just slid through the dirt digging it up until he hit a massive statue base and stopped.

Hatter stood up and started to shake it off when he saw Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in their dark paladin forms standing only five yards away from him. He was so surprised by their appearance that he did not have enough time to react as the first one charged at him. Hatter was hit hard in the face with a right hook, and then he was punched in the gut with an even more powerful left fist.

As Hatter tried to recover the dark paladin, whom he could not make out if it was Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum because they looked exactly the same grabbed his head then brought his knee up and smacked him with hit. Hatter fell to the ground as the other dark paladin showed up now and they both started kicking him everywhere. After several kicks Hatter managed to grab one of their legs and sweep the dark paladin to off his feet, then he grabbed the other one who was still kicking him, by the leg and threw him onto his back several feet away from him.

Hatter backhanded the dark paladin closest to him as he started to stand back up. Hatter didn't waist time he ran to the dark paladin who he threw and leaped into the air with his foot out in an attempt to kick him. The dark paladin easily dodged the attack and swiftly grabbed Hatters ankle then smacked him against the ground before throwing him into the wall, cracking it. Hatter barley managed to land on his feet as he put his hand on the ground to keep himself from falling down.

Hatter quickly got himself up when he saw the dark paladin he backhanded a few moments ago come at him. Hatter managed to dodge or block most of his incoming attacks but still got hit by some fists or kicks, that weren't as bad as the initial ambush on him but still hurt. As the other dark paladin was coming after Hatter again, he managed to dance around the one he was engaged with, so he wouldn't have his back against the wall.

And as the fight progressed Hatter realized that the twins were stronger than he was but he was faster than they were. Still despite his advantage in speed the Hatter could not land a single blow on either of them. He was starting to acquire the hang of his powers but all he could do was dodge or block and after a while he was becoming exhausted. Every time he dodged one attack he would be forced to block another and with their strength the twins were wearing down his defenses even while he blocked them. Soon enough the twins got in a good shot on Hatter which distracted him long enough for one of them to get behind him as they started beating him from both sides.

Finally Hatter was too tired to fight back and could barely move when the twins, who seem to never run out of energy, jumped up into the air spinning with one leg in and the other out, hit him hard on the head and knocked him down to the ground. Hatter was too weak to stand back up as he started changing back to his normal self. For a moment he though this was the end for him when the twins stood side by side then started fusing together into one. "Not bad for your first training session. Not great but you will improve." The now single dark paladin said.

Hatter recognized the voice but could not believe it. He coughed a couple times then said, "Cheshire?"

The dark paladin swiftly shape shifted into a purple cat with no fur, and glowing eyes. Cheshire smiled at Hatter then nodded. "I don't understand, you're Tweedle Dee, and Tweedle Dum?" Hatter said.

"No but the best way for me to train you is to assume their form since they are the ones you will be fighting. Today's first training session was a test of your endurance, I threw you all the way here to the chess kingdom to weaken you then ambushed you as the twins to see how long you would last when you were not at full energy. I'm hoping that we will be able to fight our enemy with us fully ready but on the chance we are ambushed after we are weakened for some reason then I needed to see if you would be capable of fighting back." Cheshire said.

"So are you going to throw me across the mountains everyday then train me until I can win?"

"No this was just a test for me to see where your skills, stamina, and mind were at. I needed to see your status from the worst perspective to train you more efficiently."

"What do you mean by that last part, where my mind is at?"

"I had to make sure that during the fight you would not be thinking of Alice, since she is your primary distraction. You can think about her on your break but during the fight your mind ahs to be completely focused on your opponents otherwise they will take the advantage quickly and you might not be able to recover. Anyways I will give you a an hour break in which time I will show you varies combat moves I have seen from other paladins fighting, and when the hour is up you will practice these moves until I tell you to stop."

Hatter rolled onto his back and tried to relax as much as possible to help him regain his strength faster; And as he lay there staring up at the sky he wondered how Alice's training was coming along.

Alice was bruised, tired, and beaten by lunch time. She spend hours sword fighting White Rabbit with very few and short breaks in between. Her goal was to hit White once in any way but she couldn't land a single scratch on him, and when she made to big of a mistake and left herself way to open White would retaliate and punch her or kick or, acting like the enemy would with the same force.

Alice had a small break after lunch so she could finish digesting her food then it was back at it again. On occasion white would hit her armor with the sword or tap it to shower her the openings she was leaving but after a full day she showed no sign of improvement. When night was upon them Alice and White removed their armor for the last time that day and ate dinner. After they finished eating Alice went to bed exhausted and fell asleep right away.

The next day Alice was woken up by White, and when he led her outside she could see that it was still dark outside. The sun was slowly rising but she still had a little difficulty seeing, so white helped Alice find the river where they took turns bathing, for privacy reasons then they returned to the cottage as the sun finally started to show and ate breakfast. It wasn't too long after breakfast that White pulled out the armors and weapons and they geared up.

Today Alice was on defense and did even worse than yesterday. She was still tired form the other day and White moved fast as lightning to her. When the day was over she was even more beaten and bruised than ever before in her life.

After a week of straight training Alice showed little sign of progress and wanted to give up all together. She wanted to get Hatter back to the cottage cuddle up with him in bed and never leave. But still she persisted, and after taking an entire day off for nothing but rest and relaxation she felt much better.

Soon enough as the days passed by Alice was getting better and better White was showing her new maneuvers and at the end of every day she was less exhausted and every morning she woke up on her own in time to bathe and eat before training. As days continued Alice felt she had made no progress at all and came to White with her concerns. It was then that he revealed to her that she was indeed making progress despite the fact she never landed a single blow on him and took many hits from; it was that he was holding back less and less and would soon be going all out on her.

The information gave Alice new hope for her progress and at the end of the first month of training Alice was landing over ten blows total at the end of most days and even countered some of Whites attacks; and now he was no longer holding back on her. Despite Alice's wonderful progress both she and White worried if it would be enough by the time they had to face the queen.

As the days went by Hatter lasted longer and longer in his battles with Cheshire shaped as the twin dark paladins. He mastered all of the moves Cheshire taught him and used his speed to his advantage. Hatter also learned to never block an attack with direct force always to redirect it and if possible counter it.

Hatter fought with everything he had against Cheshire but never won a single match against him. Despite how much progress he had made Cheshire was to powerful for him to beat, most of the time he didn't lose by normal means he just simply ran out of stamina and could no longer maintain his Paladin form. When that happened they would normally stop and let Hatter rest but sometimes Cheshire would continue attack him forcing Hatter to full blown retreat until he was completely out of stamina.

After several weeks Hatters stamina increased greatly he was able to fight from when the sun rose to hours after the sunset, however he did not become much stronger. He was still powerful being a Paladin but his primary strengths were his endurance and speed; it was then that he and Cheshire realized there were probably many types of Paladins.

They still had a couple more weeks until Cheshire's sister would be awake but as far as Cheshire was concerned Hatter was at his best, or at least at his best for the amount of time and type of training he had. Cheshire decided that it would be enough for Hatter to defeat the twins and wanted to conserve and restore his strength as much as he could in what little time they had left. Cheshire could already feel his sister's presence becoming more and more conscious so they did not have more than 10 more days left; so the two went back to the cottage to see how Alice was doing.

After many weeks of training Alice had become much better at sword fighting and had completely adjusted to the extra weight the armor put on her. She was never able to defeat White but he was always as tired as Alice by the end of their fights. Alice could not keep up with White's immense speed and natural maneuverability so she compensated by constantly drawing him in extremely close forcing him to go on the defensive so she could slip past him.

Whites greatest weakness was his defenses, he was tremendously difficult while attack but when defending he made several mistakes, not big ones but enough for Alice to slip through and scratch his armor. One day while Alice was training with White and almost had him beaten for the first time ever when she saw Hatter and Cheshire watching them from not to far away. Alice was so surprised and distracted with Hatters appearance that she lost all focus and White turned the tables on her completely and in less than a second had her on the ground with his blade pointed at her throat.

Alice learned form her critical mistake that day and never made it again, never let anything distract her like that. And While Cheshire rested, still never sleeping, Hatter trained on his own some distant away from the cottage, pummeling rocks trying to become stronger. Hatter would meet back up just outside the cottage for meals with or breaks with Alice but as soon as they were over he would go back to training again. Most of the time he maintained his fighting forms so as to not get even a little rusty in the short time they had left.

Eventually the day they were training for and the one they hoped might never come arrived; Cheshire pulled them all out from their practices and told them that his sister was awake and tomorrow they would assault the house of cards. They spent the rest of the day relaxing and going over battle plans. Cheshire would fly the three of them to the house of cards and he would blow a hole in the queen's castle where the queen most likely was to be where Hatter, Alice and White would entire the castle and either fight the queen there or search for her and then fight her. Hatter would go his separate way immediately and keep the twins at bay long enough for Alice and White to slay the queen. Finally Cheshire would battle his sister far away from the house of cards.

The night before the assault on the house of cards Alice and Hatter slept in the same bed just like before and starred at the ceiling trying to empty their thoughts until sleep came. The next morning they were totally focused on what it is they had to do, and though White wished he could train Alice more she was not to far off from being a sword master and with her help they would be able to finally slay the queen. Everyone ate breakfast silently, not having much to say to each other, and when they were done Cheshire transformed into the same form he had taken on the first day of training except with a smoother back for them to ride on.

Alice and White put their armor on, while Cheshire repaired all the damage to it and their swords during training. Then they all climbed onto his back and they were off, heading to the house of cards to free Wonderland.


	14. Chapter 6 The Heroes of Wonderland

Chapter 6: The Heroes of Wonderland

As they flew high above the house of cards Cheshire was extremely cautious keeping out an eye for any sign of his sister. He knew she was very close but he did not know exactly where she would strike from or how. As they flew closer to the castle Cheshire began to lose altitude gradually to come closer to the castle, when Hatter spotted the twins standing in the courtyard starring up at them; at him.

Hatter called out to everyone and pointed them out as Cheshire stopped where he was and looked as well. "Something is very wrong." Cheshire said.

"The queen is anticipating us, that is why she sent these two out to the courtyard to lure Hatter too them and away from her." White said.

Hatter chuckled a little and said, "Well then Cheshire guess great minds think alike. We should stick to the same tactic; if the queen is ready for us she should be where you expect her White. Anyways looks like I am up."

Hatter went to jump off Hatters back when Alice stopped him saying, "Wait" and grabbing his arm. He looked back to her and she leaned close to him and pressed her lips against his. The two held the kiss for a long moment when they finally separated and Alice said, "Good luck."

Hatter was dazed for a moment longer after the kiss when he finally snapped out of it and said, "Oh yeah I am so coming back for more of those." Then he smiled and leaped off Cheshire's back. Alice struggled to stop herself from leaping after Hatter as Cheshire moved on immediately, moving with great speed.

As they approach the castle and hover over the wall where the throne room is behind a creature that looks almost exactly like Cheshire in his current form but more slender and blue appears above them. "Hello brother, I have been waiting for you and so has the queen." Said the creature in a soothing beautiful female voice. "She is up the stairs at the top of the tower with my favorite chew toy. Why don't you hurry up and throw your friends inside so you and I can play." Then the other Jabberwocky, Emurla Cheshire's sister laughed a cold disturbingly maniacal laugh.

Cheshire hissed at her then turned back to face the wall, opened his mouth and blasted purple lightning out from it exploding the wall and revealing the throne room behind lots of dust. Cheshire then grew two arms from his sides and grabbed White and Alice and put them into the throne room then with one strong flap of his wings elevated away from the castle leaving Alice and White on their own. Alice and White looked around the throne room and saw that it was mostly empty aside from some card soldiers who were still in shock of the wall being blown open, to notice them.

Alice and White took advantage of the card soldier's momentary surprise and charged at them pulling out their swords. White and Alice cut down four of the nine cards before the others even began to defend themselves. White swiftly broke through their defenses and cut down all but two, which Alice was engaged in. The card soldiers had higher numbers and wielded broad swords but Alice was much quicker then them and waited for them to attack her first so she could dodge or deflect their attacks and come in for a quick slice or stab.

Alice felt bad for the soldiers even though they were being controlled she did not want to kill them, but she did what she had to and decapitated one of the card soldiers while White stabbed the other through the chest before she could even get to it. The card soldier dropped its weapon and fell to the ground dead. "Alice I know your holding back on them because you feel guilty over killing them but take a closer look" White said as he pointed to the dead soldiers.

Alice looked at them and when she didn't see what White was trying to tell her he picked up the helmet of the decapitated card soldier and tossed to her. She caught it with her arms but looked away for fear of what she would find inside. Then White gestured for her to look into the helmet. She sighed and did so, and to her surprise and shock the helmet was completely empty, no severed head no nothing.

"The Jabberwockies magic has transformed them so much that their nothing more than suits of armor, completely obedient to the queen. When you cut through their armor the magic leaks out and they start to simply die there is nothing really there to kill." White said.

"So then what about them?" Alice asked gesturing behind White.

White turned around and saw seven Jack of hearts emerging from the stairs that led up to the tower. They all looked much more human then the card soldiers and had a large black J painted on their chests. One wielded a rapier, another wielded two short swords, two of them wielded one long sword each, and the last three wielded what appeared to be double edged crusader type swords.

"It is best not to think about what they are and instead focus on them entirely, they are the strongest cards in the entire kingdom and fighting seven at once will be a challenge possibly harder than the queen of hearts herself." White said.

Alice and White then took their fighting stances as the Jack's approached them.

Hatter transformed into his Paladin form the moment he was off Cheshire's back, and when he landed in the center of the courtyard he made a small crater sending dust and small rock chunks all around. The dust blocked most of his vision for a moment but Hatter could see the twins eagerly awaiting him, so he stepped out of the crater and started walking towards them. As the dust cleared Hatter could see dozens of card soldiers coming out of the castle and into the courtyard completely surrounding him like the first time he was there.

Though the twins would most likely not allow any of the cards to interfere with their battle, Hatter knew after he defeated the twins he would still have to deal with them. Hatters gaze returned to the twins as the bowed to him and then launched after him. Hatter was expecting their attack and easily dodged around them, sweeping one to his feet and elbowing the other in the back of his head.

The twin Hatter elbowed stumbled forward a bit as Hatter jumped off the ground and drop kicked the twin's back sending him hurtling to the ground. Hatter landed on hic back and quickly jumped to his feet as the other twin jabbed his right fist at him. Hatter threw up his arms in front of him like a cross and blocked the attack but the force was so tremendous that it pushed him back a few feet.

As Hatter recovered the other twin came at him leaping up into the air to kick him. Hatter was much faster and leaped higher into the air and counter attacked him with a kick of his own. The kick landed on the twin's chest sending him back down, and Hatter landed with a roll. Hatter worked against momentum from his roll in order to leap back up in the direction of the other twin that punched him and flip through the air kicking him in the head. Hatter landed back on his feet with his knees bent and his back turned away from his enemies.

When he turned around he saw the twins already standing back up from his attacks wiping some dust off themselves as if it were nothing. If Hatter did any real damage it was not visible, and Cheshire was right this was going to be one incredibly tough battle. Hatters only hope would be his original tactic of holding them off until they were too weak to maintain their form and then finish them off; he also noticed that they were much slower than Cheshire was when impersonating them for training, just as strong but their team work was even more cunning than Cheshire. Then Hatter smiled and thought to himself, he might just survive this yet.

As soon as White and Alice were safely in the castles throne room, Cheshire flapped his wings as hard as he could and pushed himself up and away from them, trying to lure his sister away from his friends. He flew towards the mountains letting his sister chase after him, she took the bait and followed him. Cheshire made good distance from the castle but not to the mountains as he intended before his sister launched a bolt of blue lightning at his head.

Cheshire barley stopped in time for the bolt to go past his head and scorch the ground below him; it was a warning shot. Cheshire turned around to counter attack but as soon as he did he was tackled by his sister and both of them began plummeting towards the ground. As they were locked together fighting neither of them had enough time to pull out of their entanglement and hit the ground in an almost straight drop down. They rolled away from each other a bit then recovered at the same time and simultaneously fired out blasts of lightning from their mouths.

The two attacks collided with each other in mid air and exploded in a dazzling array of purple, blue, and green colors. Then Cheshire and Emurla transformed into four legged behemoths with a large horn on their forehead's and charged at each other. Their head bashed against one another and Emurla said, "Why brother, Why do you side yourself with the denizens of Wonderland and one a White knight to boot!"

"I could ask you the very same thing." Cheshire said. "Why did you become the queen of hearts pet?"

"Was it not obvious all those years ago? I came to her so she could aid me in the total destruction of the White knights; the people who destroyed our entire race, leaving us the last of our kind. With my Magic and her army combined we bred a new race of pure soldiers dedicated only to following orders. Their only purpose was to destroy our enemies."

"But you did not stop there, your army was then used to enslave all the free people of Wonderland or slaughter the innocents who simply chose not to fall under the queen's tyranny. You ask why I side with them it is because they deserve freedom and the chance at a better life, the same opportunity that was given to me by a White knight; the so called enemy we believed sworn to kill all Jabberwocky. I do not approve of the white knights decision in nearly making us extinct but I do know they did it out of preservation not only for themselves but for the whole of Wonderland itself."

Cheshire pushed Emurla back a few yards from him and started slowly stepping away from. "I did not see it at the time either sister but the magic of our people was destroying this world slowly, that is why it's a barren wasteland now, not because of the queen or the white knights but because of us. Join me sister together we can search for new lands discover new worlds and find places where our magic is not harmful to the environments."

Cheshire held out his right hoof and gestured for his sister to take it. Emurla started breathing more calmly now as she looked at her brother than down to his extended hoof. For a moment her eyes went sad and she was going to take his hoof when something in her made changer her mind at the last second as she said, "That sounds wonderful, but first I am going to kill that white Paladin of yours."

Then before Cheshire could react Emurla spun around and smacked Cheshire in the head with a spiky ended tail that she must have quietly grown while Cheshire was talking. Cheshire staggered backwards for a few steps growled at her and said, "You leave me no choice then. No one will ever hurt my friends again" Then Cheshire lunged at Emurla with immense ferocity.

Alice and White stood over the defeated soldiers breathing heavily. Their armor protected them from most of the attacks and they only got a few cuts on them but hey were still tired from the battle and had to rest. They waited around half an hour until finally they proceeded up the stairs heading for the tower where Emurla said the queen was waiting for them.

As they arrived at the top of the massive stair case into a circular tower room that over looked the kingdom White and Alice saw the queen fully cloaked in glistening red armor, with something by her side and the last two Jack of hearts wielding sabers standing between them and the queen. "Now, now you two step aside so our guests can see what happens to traitors in my kingdom."

The Jack's moved apart enough for Alice and White to see that the thing next to her was actually March Hair. He was beaten, bloody, and missing several patches of his fur. The queen held him by the back of his shirt. Alice struggled with rage and sorrow at the sight.

"I captured him with some of my dodo birds and realized as soon as I saw there was only him that he was a decoy." The queen said. "He gave me quite the chase though I will admit, but when the game was over I brought him back here and tortured him. He was not as fun as I hoped, never gave up anything about any of you, not even your names, so I grew bored and gave him to Emurla as a toy."

White gritted his teeth struggling not to run straight at the queen and shut her up. He knew that's what she was doing was baiting him but he could barley contain himself. "Honestly White Rabbit, out of all the people in my kingdom to betray me I never thought it would be you. You were such a good worker, always on time, always at my side when I needed you. It's going to be hard finding help as good as you were but I will have to make due."

Then without warning of any kind the queen lifted March up into the air and threw him off the tower balcony. Alice shrieked with fear and surprise and White leaped into immediate action, lunging right past the Jack's before they could even blink. He moved so swiftly that even the queen was caught off guard and stumbled back as White rushed to save his brother. He got to the edge of the balcony and threw his arm out dropping his sword on the ground to catch his brother.

White leaned half way over the edge as his paw came just out of reach of his unconscious brother. White missed him by less than an inch and screamed as he watched his brother helplessly fall to his death.

Alice saw the queen positioning herself to stab White and she shouted to him, "White behind you!"

White turned around swiftly as he could; being brought back to the present danger by Alice's warning. He was quick enough to move mostly out of the way of the queen's attack but was still caught in his left shoulder with her blade. The pain forced him to let go of his second sword as it cluttered to the ground and the queen pulled her blade out from his shoulder.

Alice went to help White out but was immediately blocked off by the two remaining Jack's. Alice brought up her sword to block the first incoming attack but was so distracted with White that she didn't move fast enough to guard the second one form the other Jack. Its saber sword hit her hard in the shoulder but could not penetrate her magically reinforced armor; still the impact of it bruised her a bit. She took a couple steps back and put herself into a defensive position to fight off the guards before she could help White.

White struggled to keep up with the queen as he was on the defensive entirely; a position he could not stand for long, especially without his second sword. His training with Alice helped him strengthen his defenses much more but he knew he would make another big slip up soon. Fortunately for the queen made the first mistake due to over confidence; for just a brief moment on her aggressive attacks she moved her blade to far away form the front of her body and White used the small opening to swiftly kick her in the chest. She staggered back a couple steps but quickly regained herself and the two changed fighting styles into more of a fencing type.

The queen would lunge forward and white would step back and deflect the blade, then he would counter with a swing. The queen dodged it and tried with a swing of her own but White guarded against it, and as soon as she put her free hand on the handle of her blade to add more pressure to there stand off White released his guard and stepped aside swiftly. The queen almost fell on her face and if White was able to use his left arm and other sword he would have had the opportunity to kill her; instead he was forced to dance around to her side and leap backwards and buy himself more time.

White turned to his side with his good arm and sword facing the queen as she recovered from her mistake and was now facing him in parallel position. The queen was caught partially off guard by Whites mastery of the sword arts but as she raised her sword above her head pointing it at white, holding it now with both hands like it was meant to be, he knew that she was now completely serious and focused on defeating him. Now that the queen wasn't holding anything back White knew that he couldn't defeat her anymore; he had the element of surprise at first which kept him alive and gave him a fair chance even one on one but he messed up before the fight even began.

White took a quick glance back at Alice who was still struggling with the Jack's, he knew with this armor and weapons she could defeat them but she would not make it time to help White kill the queen. White sighed and thought about a last resort strategy that he hoped it would never come too, and then he put his attention back to the queen and leaped forwards at her with great speed his sword held high above his head.

The queen was ready for the attack but White was so fast that she had to block his sword and could not take advantage of the opening he created. Their swords danced around as small brilliant sparks flew off every time they clashed blades. Despite Whites immense speed the queen was able to block or deflect every incoming attack from him, and she constantly exploited his small openings making them grow until she could get in a decent enough attack to cut him. As the fight progressed White was slowing down and the queen knew it was because of his blood loss, she kept her guard up though not taking chances with him as she thought to herself that White Rabbit was much better swordsman than he believed, if he had both his arms to use freely they would be evenly matched and his partner would tip the balance in his favor.

Alice struggled with the Jack's; she could have defeated one of them without too much trouble but against two she was facing them at different sides and always had to focus on making sure one of them could not get behind her. With her training against White Rabbit it was mostly straight forward, he was much faster and better skilled but there was only one of him so even if he danced around her could quickly turn to face him and not worry about leaving her back open. White trained her well but he did not have enough time to train her against fighting multiple enemies and she still was only about half way to becoming a sword master unlike her opponents who were incredibly skilled.

The only thing that kept Alice from dying was her armor, the Jacks were strong but their blades would never penetrate her armor, but that did not stop them form cutting her a couple times where her armor was not protecting her; like her cheek. Alice got in some good attacks on them too she cut off the wrist of one of them which a red smoke came out from it and managed to get several cuts all over different parts of them which produced some red smoke as well but it seemed to be doing nothing against them. Alice needed a lethal blow against these guys in order to defeat them, she knew could do it but as she glanced over at White who was not doing so well and had several cuts on his armor she knew she didn't have much time before he would go down.

White struggled to fight the queen he was moving almost half his greatest speed and Alice was still struggling with the Jacks. He knew that soon enough he wouldn't have the energy to pull off his fail safe move. White would have to create an opening for Alice to exploit very soon and hope that she caught onto his idea and would ignore the Jacks long enough to slay the queen.

White danced around the queen enough to past her and glance at Alice to find out which way she was facing. Then he lured the queen and himself in a position where Alice would be able to see the two of them through the Jacks. When he was in position he used the last of his energy deflect the queen's sword attack and forced her to swing her arm around in timing with him to deflect next attack.

As soon as the queen deflected the first attack from White she swung her arm around again and started looping their blades around swiftly until the tip of her sword was at the edge of White's sword handle where she locked it in there and flung the blade from Whites hand. The blade went flying across the room but the queen knew that White would be able to leap across and grab it in a flash so instead of giving him the opportunity she swiftly pulled her blade back then jabbed it straight through his armor and into his stomach.

The queen pushed the blade halfway through then to her surprise White grabbed her by the wrist and pulled the blade all the way through and leaned close to her face starring into her eyes. White had the look of final victory in him as he fell to his knees. The queen tried pulling the blade out of White but he held her hand in place. She tried a second time but still nothing. The third and final time she yanked it free of Whites grip as Alice came up from behind White and stabbed the queen in the chest. Her blade pierced the armor and went right through her heart.

Hatter danced around the twins dodging or deflecting all of their attacks. He made sure to throw in some good attacks when the opportunities presented themselves so the twins wouldn't catch on to his plan. For some time things were going good for Hatters battle until he heard a scream that sounded like Alice coming from one of the towers in the castle. He looked over to see a figure falling down from it; and even from the great distance Hatter could see it was March Hair.

The twins took advantage of Hatters distraction as one of them jumped in the air, spun around and kicked him in the head. The blow landed perfectly and Hatter was launched through the air and skid across several yards in the courtyard. The twins started to casually walk towards Hatter enjoying their brief victory when suddenly Hatter got back to his feet and rushed them.

Hatter moved so fast as he grabbled arms with one of the twins and pushed him back a few yards until they started losing momentum; where Hatter immediately wrapped his arms under the Dark Paladin's. Then he pulled him to the side with him and stared spinning around quickly lifting the Dark Paladin off the ground holding him. After a few spins Hatter let go of the Dark Paladin with a strong push of his arms sending him flying far away.

Then Hatter turned his attentions to the other Dark Paladin twin and tackled him to the ground before he could even react. Hatter started pummeling his head into the ground with his fists with incredibly speeds. The Dark Paladin caught one of Hatters fists but Hatter threw it aside then put his hands together, raised them above his head and brought them smashing down onto the Dark Paladins head. Hatter didn't stop pummeling him until his head was half a foot deep in the concrete.

When the other Dark Paladin finally got back to them Hatter had finished off the other one as it started turning back into his human form. Hatter didn't stop too see what the twin looked like in his human form he put all his attention and rage onto the remaining Dark Paladin. The other twin was running at Hatter now, and Hatter waited until he wasn't too far away to sprint at him.

Hatter preemptively attacked the twin stopping him full force by grabbing his face and slamming him to the ground. The Dark Paladin managed to get his feet under him and launched Hatter behind him. Hatter recovered quickly in the air and as soon as he landed on his feet he sprinted at the Dark Paladin again who just got back to his feet When Hatter arrived.

Hatter delivered a furry of punches and Kicks, constantly forcing the Dark Paladin to stagger back a step or two. Hatter didn't let up or even slow down with his frenzied assault until the Dark Paladin was backed all the way into the wall at the other end of the courtyard. The card soldiers came into help at that point but Hatter ignored them as their weapons just broke off his dense white armored skin.

With his left hand Hatter held the Paladin against the wall while with his other he formed a fist and repeatedly punched him in the head with immense speed. After well over a hundred consecutive punches Hatter grabbed the Dark Paladin by his shoulders and flipped him into the ground. He then started kicking him in the head form there for a while when he finally felt the Dark Paladin was dead then turned his attentions to the cards.

Hatter was feeling very tired after all of that and knew he would not much last longer. He expended almost all his energy on the twins and still had to defeat the small army of cards completely surrounding him. Hatter lunged at the closest soldier to him and with one punch knocked its helmet head off and it fell to the ground dissolving into red smoke.

Hatter preserved his strength carefully while fighting the card soldiers and rarely bothered to block or dodge their attacks since their weapons usually broke off his skin. It still hurt him but the worst it would do was some bruising. Hatter made sure to kill each card soldier with one attack; either knocking its head off, or stabbing his hand through its chest. After slaying many card soldiers Hatter began feeling more and more exhausted. He would not be able to hold his Paladin form for long and still had several card soldiers left to defeat.

As Hatter battled on against the seemingly endless masses of cards he began to dread. Things were looking hopeless for him he was running out of energy and still he saw no sign of the wave of card soldiers ending. Hatter slowly fought his way towards the castle trying to make his way inside to help Alice finish off the queen and then run for their lives. But something strange happened instead, as Hatter continued slowly making his way to the castle, all of the card soldiers suddenly evaporated into a red smoke.

As the cards began to dissipate into the red smoke Hatter looked around with wonder and confusion. Whatever strange force caused the cards to disappear Hatter was grateful for it may have just saved his life. For a brief moment Hatter celebrated his victory when he remembered Alice and White fighting for their lives and all of Wonderland inside the castle. Hatter ran into the castle and headed through the throne room and up the tower stairs to aid Alice and White.

Cheshire and Emurla soared around high in the skies shooting bolts of lightning at each other from their mouths. Emurla kept trying to advance towards the House of cards but Cheshire blocked her at every front and started doing serious damage to her. While Emurla was simply trying to defeat her brother or maneuver around him, Cheshire was fighting to kill her.

After being grazed in the side by one of Cheshire's lightning attacks Emurla soared high above him and started to charge up for a powerful attack. Cheshire began charging energy to and as soon as Emurla released her energy in a wave of lightning breath Cheshire began to flap his wings in powerful strokes flying up towards his sister. Cheshire countered Emurla's stream of lightning breath with his own as he continued to fly higher and closer to his sister.

Cheshire using their lightning breath streams as a cover caught Emurla by complete surprise as he came close enough to grab her by the throat. Both of them were scorched a little by the lightning streams battling so close but they ignored as they now wrestled around in the air. Cheshire locked his wings around his sisters and they immediately started falling.

The two spiraled down out of the air spinning and spinning, Emurla tried opening her wings but Cheshire kept them closed using his own. When they were only 13 yards way from the ground Cheshire released his grip on his sister and broke away from her. Cheshire then leveled out his body, extended his wings and soared downward at first then pulled himself up, grazing the ground slightly as he passed it and then gained some air again.

While Emurla tried to level herself out then flap her wings. She did little to slow her momentum and instead of going up like shed planned she was too close to the ground and slammed down on it hard. She fell almost straight down and took most of the impact on her back.

The impact shattered Emurla's spine and she yelped in enormous pain. She immediately began to transform her shape into a colossal blue tinted bear. Her spine was reshaped and mostly healed as the pain faded, but the damage to her internal self was still dealt. She got up to face Cheshire who just landed on his feet and was transforming into a colossal purple and grayish wolf.

Emurla sued her magic to turn her fur into a blazing fire surrounding her body. The flames did her no damage but were so hot that they began distorting the air around her. Cheshire in response grew thinner and rushed at her with immense speed.

At first it looked like Cheshire was going to attack her head on but then he bolted to the left and started running circles around her. He began picking up speed as his figure became a blur to Emurla. She tried following him with her eyes but could not and only starred at the blurry figure running around her in confusion. She soon grew impatient and tried to swipe through the air where Cheshire would be but he only moved outwards a little to avoid the swipe then went back to running circles around her.

It wasn't until the flames were almost completely gone that Emurla realized what Cheshire was doing. By running so fast around her he was creating a small cortex that was cutting off the oxygen and killing her flames, she would not be able to create more as long as he kept running circles around her and he was too fast in that form for her to hit. Emurla cursed to herself and tried shooting lightning out form her mouth but when nothing came out she realized that the form she took only had the flames.

Emurla began to shape shift her body transforming into a blue smoke and begin to reassemble in another shape. Cheshire took advantage of the opportunity presented to him and stopped running around as soon as Emurla began to change. Cheshire stood on his back legs and swiftly began transforming his right paw into a shadowy like claw.

As Emurla's new body become more and more into shape Cheshire thrust his shadowy hand forward at her with great speed. Before Emurla could complete her shape shifting Cheshire's shadowy hand penetrated her would be chest area and grabbed her heart; then yanked it out.

The heart was a blue glowing oval like object that's light began to fade. Emurla's body completely turned into blue smoke and dissipated in the air. The sound of Emurla's voice began to echo from the heart as she said, "Why brother, why choose them over me?"

"I am choosing to wrong all of the mistakes we and our ancestors made so long ago. I gave you the choice of leaving with me, discovering new worlds together. But you chose the queen over me and gave me no other option, I am sorry beloved sister."

Cheshire was in tears holding the heart close to him now as its light slowly faded away.

Alice let go of her sword and the queen fell onto her back dead. Alice got down on her knees and checked Whites wounds; he was bleeding out badly. "Hang on I'm going to go get some help." Alice said.

White grabbed her before she could leave and said, "No, no stay with me until I die please."

Alice was in tears now as she cradled Whites head into her lap. "Don't say that were going to go get you help and you will up in no time and can finish training me. We can go back to the cottage; I can learn how to make tea almost as good as March and we can all live happily ever after. And we can write a book together about what happened-"

White put his finger up to Alice's lip to stop her. "It's okay my dear, my mission is over the queen is dead and Wonderland is free. I wasn't sure if you would make it past the Jacks in time to pull this off."

"I didn't, they just disappeared into smoke, armor and everything then I saw you get stabbed by the queen and rushed over to aid you. But I was too late." Alice's tears flowed faster now.

White chuckled a little, and then said, "You did good, besides it is fine I'm going to join my brother shortly; but I need something from you first. The first thing is take care of Hatter; he is going to need you to keep him out of trouble. The last is I want you to be the next queen of Wonderland, you may be young but I believe you have what it takes to restore things back the way they should be; Hatter will help you in this task."

Alice kept crying but nodded her head at Whites request. She held him closely until he stopped breathing and closed his eyes for good. Hatter came up the stairs moments after and transformed back into his normal form as soon as he saw the scene. He walked over to Alice crouched down and wrapped his arms around her. She buried her face in his chest and just cried while he stroked her hair and held her close.


	15. Epilogue

Epilogue

Word spread around the kingdom rather fast about how the queen of hearts was slain. It was mostly due to the card soldiers who were still stationed around the kingdom as guards suddenly turned into smoke. Cheshire returned to Alice and Hatter and explained to them about how after he killed his sister the soldiers she made purely out of her magic or corrupted them so much with it, no longer had that magic to survive on and simply vanished.

The night was filled with the beautiful light of the rare green moon as everyone in the kingdom celebrated, and had last minute festivities. Everyone celebrated their newly found freedom while some older people who remembered the green moon festival celebrated that alongside it. Cheshire gave White Rabbit and March Hair proper burials outside of the cottage and held a small ceremony with Alice and Hatter. They returned to the House of cards (which would later be renamed) and celebrated in the festivities with everyone.

Cheshire joined them in the celebration for a while but he kept the form of the cat that he had been using for so long. After some time through the festivities Cheshire disappeared without saying much to Alice or Hatter. Cheshire had snuck off to the grave sight of the former Chess king.

As Cheshire arrived at the Chess king's grave he glanced back up at the moon and said, "Well old friend finally Wonderland is free of everything. Soon it will be my time to rest like you, perhaps for good. I never have slept before so this permanent sleep will be interesting; perhaps I will finally see what a dream is." After Cheshire finished talking he just sat up and starred at the moon.

Cheshire was so busy starring at the moon he didn't even notice When Alice and Hatter arrived on dodo birds, until they called out to him. "So the whole kingdom is celebrating and here you are alone. That's not like you at all." Hatter said.

Cheshire turned to them then went back to starring at the moon. "Well tonight is your guy's night. Besides I wanted to spend it with Aaron, but I guess I can settle for some extra company.

Anyways tomorrow morning I can take you home Alice if that is what you want. However my power is fading so it will be a one way trip, I can take Hatter as well but if you go you will never be able to come back."

"What do you mean can't you just rest for a few years, recharge your energy and then take us back and forth freely?" Alice asked.

"Jabberwockies are born in pairs and often die in them as well. The sad truth about it is that without their other counterpart Jabberwocky cannot survive for long; isn't that right Cheshire." Hatter said.

Alice looked up to Hatter, the light of the full green moon gave her plenty to see in but she didn't need much to tell Hatter was on the verge of tears.

"So how long have you known?" Cheshire asked.

"I pieced it together after talking to White Rabbit a bit. I knew that you might have had to kill your sister and yourself in the process to free Wonderland. I hated the thought of it and hoped it wouldn't come to it but-"

"But if it had to be done to free Wonderland, than it had to be done." Cheshire interrupted. "It is alright my friends; I have righted the wrongs of my people and of myself. This is the last chapter of my story and all in all I think it's a fitting end."

Hatter and Alice said nothing more then walked up and sat side by side with Cheshire in the middle. The three of them spent hours just starring at the moon in silence until Alice and Hatter were barley able to keep their eyes open, Cheshire guided them back to the cottage on the dodo birds and then the two climbed in bed and fell asleep right away.

The next morning Hatter and Alice woke up still tired and feeling extremely sore from their battle the other day. Cheshire gave them time to wake up and eat breakfast before he came back to them and asked Alice what her decision was.

Alice looked up to Hatter, smiled at him then grabbed his hand and said, "I'm going to miss my family very much but Wonderland is my new home now, it's where I belong."

Hatter squeezed Alice's hand then leaned down and kissed her. When they stopped kissing Alice turned back to Cheshire and said, "Actually Cheshire if you could I would like you to give a note to my brother."

"I can do that." Cheshire said.

Alice ran back inside the cottage and quickly found some paper and a writing quill with some ink then began to write a note to her brother. She wanted to tell him everything but could not think of where to begin so she just wrote something small but significant to them. Then Alice came back outside and gave the note to Cheshire.

Cheshire took the note then said, "Give me a few hours and I shall return." Cheshire said. Then he disappeared leaving Alice and Hatter alone.

Cheshire returned to the forest thicket behind Alice's old house and snuck inside invisibly. The place was mostly empty except a couple boxes. Cheshire searched around the house too see if anyone was insight, then he heard voices coming from outside and went into the room that he remembered was where Alice stayed before following him.

The room was just as empty as the house except inside the closet, where Cheshire found a small paper back book titled "Alice's adventures in Wonderland." Cheshire slipped the note inside the book when he heard the sound of someone approaching. Then he placed the book inside the closet and quietly slid the door until there was only a crack peeking inside it. Cheshire focused on his invisibility as a young man with blonde hair and handsome features walked inside the room.

Cheshire almost lost all focus on his invisibility when he saw the young man. Aside from the hair color he looked exactly like his old friend the Chess King Aaron. The young man looked around the room then his eyes stopped on where Cheshire was sitting invisibly. For a moment Cheshire thought he had lost his invisibility when the young man went to the closet and opened it up.

He picked up the book found the note inside and started reading it. When the young man read the note a second time he went downstairs and Cheshire silently and invisibly followed him. After he heard him speak though is when Cheshire was completely sure about his theory. This young man who was also named Aaron is the reincarnation of the former Chess king.

Now Cheshire understood why he was so drawn to that world in the first place, it was because of Aaron. His meeting Alice was not just a coincidence; it was destiny. And Cheshire for the first time in a very long time was truly happy again. His old friend found a new life one where he can be free to live as he wants and be happy.

When Cheshire returned to Wonderland he spent the entire day with Alice and Hatter; he debated on telling Alice about his discovery in her world but decided against it seeing how happy she was now. And as the day started to end and the sun began to set the three of them sat up high on a hill watching the sun set together. As the sun went down over the horizon Cheshire began to disappear but this time for good. When he was gone completely Alice and Hatter cuddled up together and thought back to all their fun times together with Cheshire.

Many months' later Alice and Hatter became the new rulers of Wonderland and slowly began to help restore it to what it used to be as people began moving out of the kingdom and into new areas. Hatter after some time brought in a select group of people to the cottage so they could do various tasks; such as grow food in the green room to give to the people of Wonderland.

Some of the people Hatter brought to the cottage were in charge of copying down all of the books inside the library to eventually open up a public library of knowledge inside the new kingdom Alice and Hatter were building. A lot of people still needed new clothing but Hatter took the task upon himself all alone because that was something he just loved doing.

Eventually Hatters and Alice's new kingdom was built, it was created in the former Chess kingdom and the architects used pictures from some of the books about the old chess kingdom as a base for the new one. The builders even repaired many of the statues that took the shape of the Chess pieces. And after a year and a half the new kingdom was finished and was open to all.

Hatter decided to name the kingdom after the old one, the Chess kingdom. Alice and Hatter still lived in the cottage though and Hatter would one day name someone else to be king so he and Alice could spend their days doing as they wish.

One day Alice and Hatter were walking around the Chess kingdom just admiring its beauty when they came across a familiar set of statues. These statues were of March Hair, and White Rabbit standing side by side with a statue of Cheshire in his cat form and mischievous smile standing on each of their shoulders. There was some plaque at the feet of them that read in big letters "In dedication to Cheshire, March Hair, and White Rabbit: **The heroes of Wonderland.**


End file.
